Unnatural Evolution
by Type069
Summary: A Blackwatch trooper is infected with Mercer's variant of Blacklight, and becomes an enemy to both sides.
1. Chapter 1

"You've all been briefed on the objective. Marines are being deployed to handle the walkers, while our troops will be operating armor against the heavier targets."

The commander went on, reiterating emergency protocols and helicopter deployment. I listened intently, instinctively at attention as my years of training had instilled in me. Our squad got the boring job of road block. None of his words truly sunk in, as I had heard them all before every single time our squad was deployed. The only words that truly got my attention were his closing dismissal.

"Codename Zeus is still free roaming. Your orders are to attack on sight. If initial engagement fails, you are to order a strike team in immediately. You fight that fucking thing until your head is torn off. No excuses. Dismissed."

My team and I began to file out, heading toward the UH-60's waiting for us. All of us wore the same uniform. Tactical vests, helmets with goggles attached and gas masks. Over the years we spent in our gear, I don't think any of us would be comfortable without it. We would never have normal lives, no matter how this situation turned out. A voice in my head began to bark orders at me.

_"Fuck that, soldier! Your life is the life of Blackwatch! There is no other way of life! Straighten the fuck up and get your ass in that bird!"_

I obeyed the voice, (my own voice) layered with authority and the distortion of a gas mask and jogged the short way to the Black Hawk. Any mental health professional would have expressed great concern over this episode, but Blackwatch training seemed to instill this in all of its troops. The army psychologist never showed any concern over this, seeing the Blackwatch seal over my file.

We were all hanging onto the support rails of the helicopter rather than sitting down with safety straps over our bodies. We needed to be ready for everything, including immediate vehicle evacuation. What few marines there were in the helicopters near us were going through the tedious process of buckling up, glancing at us as if we were crazy. One of my fellow Blackwatch troops flipped them off, likely scowling behind his mask. His radio clicked on briefly.

"Ass fucking pussy marines. Can't even handle a little ride in a helicopter without shitting themselves." I turned away from them all, looking toward the city we were attempting to contain. I felt such hatred looking at what this place had become. The red ambience that settled into everything and everyone. And every time I felt that rising hatred at that red, I saw that thing's face and felt even more hatred.

Mercer, Zeus, the Blacklight virus that had run through this city and infected every living thing it came by. It was the incarnate of everything that Blackwatch was supposed to destroy. It was the personification of everything we were trained to hate. Now that it had a name that we could call out, my hatred had become a focused beam of death. I was prepared to kill that monster the moment it was in a five mile vicinity of me.

I was so consumed by hatred I hadn't noticed we were already off the ground. Our team was blocking off a road leading to a rather bad infected zone. All civilians were going to be averted. We had authorization to shoot anyone who even looked at us. In the eyes of our commander, anyone who wasn't already infected was merely a potential infected.

And here at Blackwatch, we exercised our authority at every time possible. Personally, I had fired upon four or five "civilians". My record was considered lacking, taking into perspective the amount of potential infected all of Blackwatch had taken out of commission.

Our ride touched asphalt a little down road to the infected zone. We jumped out and began jogging to our blockade, a few marines looking around dumbly for something to do. Rails had already been set up, men and armament the only things lacking. We took our positions, the frontal layer armed with M4 assault rifles. I and another trooper were armed with M249 machine guns, a little ways away from the first layer of the blockade. The last few members of our team were armed with rocket launchers. Security was tight due to the increase in Zeus' activity.

The two troops armed with M4's had the excitement of directing everyone way from the area, yelling out orders to anyone brave enough to glance at us.

There were plenty of complaints coming in due to our actions, but anything reaching outside of our security net that even mentioned what seemed like Blackwatch was interrupted, destroyed, or killed. All in the name of homeland security.

We were fucking untouchable. I, a mere soldier, had authority that overruled the president's, as long as it involved something similar to the mess we were in now.

Time passed slowly, our vigilant eyes constantly sweeping the area for everything that constituted a threat. So far it seemed as if everyone on this street had just a little bit more intelligence than the rest of the potential infected.

Until I heard the familiar radio click in my headset.

"Back up asshole! I have the right to shoot you." One of my team members had pushed back someone who had walked too close to him. All eyes were on this person, all fingers reaching toward their respected triggers. It didn't look like Zeus, just some jackass walking too close to the blockade.

Apparently he didn't get the message. He recovered from the push and walked directly toward the troop who had shoved him halfway into the street.

"Motherfucker! Did you not here me? I will shoot you!" Other people on the street had either frozen or began running away.

My teammate shoved the man again, his finger already wrapped around the trigger of his rifle. I just wanted him to get it over with and shoot that bastard already. The token marine in his area spoke up.

"Hey man, leave the guy alone."

I could physically feel the rage leave the civilian and turn to the marine.

"Shut the fuck up or you're next! I could kill you and no one at Red Crown would give a shit!"

Despite his bravery, the marine wilted under a supreme authority.

The rage turned its head back toward the intruding pedestrian. None of us expected him to retaliate, although the very fact we were here was to be ready for it. The unassuming man had rammed his fist through my teammate's stomach and out from between his shoulder blades.

"What the… Fuck…" He muttered his last words and fell to the ground as the man pulled his hand back out.

"It's Zeus! Open fire!" I yelled out to the soldiers around me as I began firing in bursts, feeling reassuring the recoil in my shoulder. The marine had turned away and ran from the unveiled monster.

As our bullets made contact with Mercer's body, the creature seemed to melt into a flurry of black and red tendrils. The man's form was replaced with the notorious hooded monstrosity that was Alex Mercer. It seemed to contemplate our presence, looking at us calmly as bullets passed through its body. Its head snapped to attention as a rocket was launched at it. It rolled with practiced fluidity out of the rocket's way and directly into the fleeing marine. The marine was about to eat asphalt when its hand grasped the back of his uniform.

"Holy shit! Shoot him! Fucking shoot him!" The panicked solder flailed, knowing all too well what Zeus did to its victims. I may have done more than my fair share of shit in this world, and I knew I was on the fast track to Hell, but I couldn't imagine having a heart cold enough to do what Zeus was about to do. None of our bullets would stop him from his next act.

Zeus tossed the marine forward slightly, moving forward in a lunge too fast for us to see and impaled the marine on the battering ram that was its fist.

The nameless marine began screaming as his body was broken down by strange tendrils that reached out of Zeus' body. All of his being was converted into the black and red tendrils that seemed to compose Zeus. His screaming continued, even as his mass was pulled into the monster's own, limbs still flailing as they were broken down.

Something deep in me seemed to snap as I heard the screaming continue as the soldier's mass disappeared. He was still fucking alive… Even as his body was torn at the cellular level and absorbed into a walking disease.

The screaming finally ceased as Zeus solidified into "human" form. What ever had snapped within me was still breaking as I felt a surge of fear that I had never experienced before. I squeezed the trigger as hard as possible and began unloading the box mag of my machine gun into whatever Red Crown would call this thing next. To me, it was just another incarnate of the devil.

It turned to me with a look of disgust, clutching at some of the bullet wounds as they healed rapidly. It began its sprint toward me, tendrils enveloping its arms as they weaponized themselves. The panic nearly exploded from me as I attempted to fire more rounds from my taxed machine gun. It didn't take long for it to reach me, knocking the gun out of my hands with its freakishly large talons. I wouldn't have been surprised if the gun itself was cut in half. It grabbed me by the neck with its other set of claws, strangely enough, keeping the blades way from my flesh. I would have been overjoyed knowing my life had been spared the grim fate of being disemboweled by those daggers. I would have been, if I didn't know the reason why it was holding me up off the ground.

"FUCK! GET HIM OFF BEFORE HE FUCKING EATS ME!" I yelled so loud that the mic in my mask was over loaded for a moment.

I could feel every subtle moment as death rushed at me, a fate worse than hell about to jump in front of it. Zeus tossed me in the air slightly, as if I weighed less than five pounds, throwing its right arm behind it as its left arm came toward my body. I felt it before it made contact. Thick blades slicing open my skin, barely missing my organs as the impact caused me to turn in the air. I struggled to see from my horizontal point of view as Zeus' other clawed arm began speeding toward me about to cleave me in half and allow my body to be consumed one cell at a time by a monstrosity colder than anything that Blackwatch could ever dream about spawning.

My vision went black before the multiple blades could finish. I heard an explosion and felt something wet splatter on me briefly. Then everything was extinguished.


	2. Chapter 2

In what I assumed was life after death within Zeus, I saw images thrown into my mind. I saw a vial filled with a concentrated disease hit concrete and shatter. That seemed to unleash a plethora of faces and voices, all screaming and yelling as their lives ended. I felt the raw emotion of a thousand plus people in their very peaks. Emotions that I could never have the capacity to feel. I felt overloaded to the point of my own consciousness shattering. I was about to lose myself in the collective of shattered souls and minds of the dead.

Then everything seemed to disappear. The collective disappeared, leaving only my own memory of its existence. Everything was black again, and I was no longer aware of anything.

Pain came first, dragging the rest of the sensory theater with it. I opened my eyes behind my goggles and attempted to move. Open wounds across my abdomen and legs kept me from moving too much. I grunted loudly and fell back. Slowly, I dragged myself across whatever was under me, trying to find something to sit up against. I found a solid object to use as a crutch and painfully pulled myself up. Strangely, the pain never seemed to linger, only flash sharply then leave soon after a spike.

I looked down to assess my condition. My body shouldn't have been holding together as it was. The gashes across my stomach and legs were deep enough to look into and see glimpses of what I hoped weren't vital organs. What disturbed me the most was that there was extremely little bleeding. I left a small trail of blood from where I had been earlier, but not the gallons that would be expected from such deep lacerations.

I pulled a small rip cord from my vest, setting off a GPS distress signal. It took mere seconds for a response. Despite the late hour and my extensive sleep, my radio still had enough power to relay a signal.

"Unit 242, we have received your emergency beacon. What is your status?" I hoped that my radio would last for my response.

"Heavily wounded. Medical assistance imperative." I looked around me, seeing chunks of my former teammates. "High casualties. One survivor. Zeus is presumed to still be alive." My radio died at that point. My GPS would continue to work as it ran on a separate battery. A medical team would be at my position soon to give me medical attention and possibly to quarantine me.

It would be necessary, as any infected had to be destroyed. All Blackwatch soldiers were infected with a benign form of Blacklight to increase durability and mental capability. But any virus outside of Blackwatch control would be destroyed if it could not be contained.

I wasn't worried. I was confident in my ability to tell if I was infected. I didn't see any signs, nor did I feel any different. The only thing that worried me was my lack of bleeding.

My worries were interrupted as a helicopter began to descend near me. I raised my arm to signal them, but the pain made me lower it. A couple of soldiers jumped out aiming their weapons around the area as they lead in Blackwatch scientists. They were in level 4 hazardous material suits, completely sealed off from the world. They walked to me awkwardly, keeping their suits from falling off their bodies by shrugging the loose material into position every few steps.

I coughed a few times, feeling blood fill my mask. They reached me and slowly moved me onto my back. They surveyed my wounds while a trooper looked over their shoulders.

"Looks like a hunter tried to chop you in half." He pointed to my wounds with his rifle.

"Fucking Zeus… He tried to eat me. I don't know how I survived."

He didn't say any more, just gazed at me through his goggles. I got a little nervous.

"I'm not infected. There weren't any walkers in the area." He just nodded. I could tell he didn't believe me.

The scientists covered my wounds loosely and pulled out some devices. One took a sample while the other held out a small virus sensor. He began to wave it around my body, the device beeping quietly. The trooper who had spoken to me aimed his rifle at my face.

"Stop. That could just be from Zeus' attack. Wait for the blood sample to…" He was interrupted by an alarming chime from the other scientist's device.

"He's infected! It's Zeus!" The scientists stumbled back, dropping their items.

"Priority target identified!" The troopers gathered together, aiming at me.

I stood up, still leaning against the wall, holding at my still open wounds.

"I'm not Zeus! Don't shoot!" They didn't even give me a chance.

"Open up!" I felt a couple dozen bullets contact my body. The pain racked through me horribly, causing me to fall down. I felt my breath leave me as a second death came to claim me.

Then a ragged pocket of air came into my lungs. I felt at my fresh wounds, feeling the new blood coming from them, yet the pain was subsiding slowly. I struggled back up, looking at my comrades turned executioners. They stood their ground, continuing to aim.

"Take him down!" My reaction was immediate. A few more bullets hit me, but I was close enough to one of them to rip the rifle out of their hands. I rammed the butt of the rifle in their face and emptied the clip into the other attackers.

What I had done didn't hit me until after their bodies hit the ground. I dropped the rifle and stared at my dead comrades. Bullet holes littered their torsos, a few shattered pieces of goggles and masks clinging to their faces. I stumbled away from them, falling over the trooper I had taken the rifle from. I recovered and glanced at him. His entire face was caved in, mask and all shoved into the back of his skull.

I stared for a long time. There was absolutely no way that the blow I gave him had that kind of power. It wasn't humanly possible to exert that much strength so effortlessly. Even with my slight viral infection.

"Holy shit!" I looked up to see the scientists trying to get away. I couldn't let them tell Red Crown what happened. Despite their readings, I wasn't Zeus. I couldn't be. I was still me; I still hated Zeus with all of my being. I wasn't going to let them ruin the only life I had.

"_They're a security risk, soldier. Rip their fucking heads out of their asses!"_ The inner drill sergeant spoke again, reassuring the actions I was about to take. I jogged to them, despite the pain I still felt in my torso from my claw and bullet wounds.

They tried running, but couldn't move properly with their suits still on. I grabbed the first one and threw him to the ground, stepping on his neck as hard as I could. The sound of bone breaking and flesh ripping let me know he was dead.

The other one had frozen at this sight. I moved to him slowly, still doubled over in pain. He couldn't move, so it made it easier for me to take hold of his neck.

I began squeezing, steadily getting tighter. I felt something within me take control. Something primal within my consciousness that screamed for sustenance. As my hands closed around his throat completely, I felt his life-force begin to slip into my own, becoming my own. I released him and clutched at my head as it was filled with foreign memories. I felt knowledge and emotions and every ounce of this unknown man's soul become my own. It melded into me without disrupting my own memories and consciousness.

I came out of the haze and looked around, no longer seeing the man whose life I had ended. I looked down at myself to see that my wounds had completely healed. Even my clothing had been restored to perfection. On the ground in front of me was a small puddle of blood.

Memories I had not seen before surfaced in my mind. I felt an entire lifetime rocket through me, feeling every single subtle moment locked away in a different person. I experienced his entire life, all the way to the point where it ended.

I saw myself; felt my hands on his neck from his view. I felt my grip go through his neck, but his consciousness didn't end there. I saw tendrils reach out of my back and pull him to me. His vision went black as his cells were broken down, but I continued to feel his pain as the rest of his body was broken down and used to heal my wounds and make my body stronger.

I woke from the second onslaught and stared at the puddle of blood that was once a human. A human that I knew better than I had known anyone else. He was not just in me, he had become me. Everything that was once his was now mine. Everything.

I had just consumed someone. I did something that Zeus had performed on many occasions in front of security cameras.

"Fuck!" What the fuck had happened to me? Had I become Zeus and not known it? Had it slipped into my body while I was unconscious? I waited for my consciousness to be overtaken by that collective that had touched me in my dreams. If Zeus had hidden within me then that meant it could take over at any moment.

I waited for what felt like years inside my head, waiting to be catalogued with the collection of minds that was Zeus, but it never happened.

Either Zeus was dormant in me, or it wasn't there at all.

That wouldn't explain the fact that I seemed to be infected with Mercer's form of Blacklight. I looked around at the carnage I had left. Red Crown would send a team out here looking for the missing rescue squad. I removed the GPS transmitter from my vest and threw it to the ground, breaking it.

With strength I had never known, I began running from the compromised blockade. It felt so effortless, but I was running faster than I had ever been capable of running, easily clearing block after block. The area had been cleared after the hive had been taken down, civilians having left in fear of being infected by the collapsed germ house.

Despite the speed I was running, and the amount of time that had passed without rest, I wasn't tired. My muscles didn't ache or burn at all. The streets were clean of people, but debris littered the sidewalk and roads. My reaction time was incredibly heightened. As objects came close to me, I was able to jump over them or swivel on my legs accordingly.

I was teaching myself parkour on the fly, just by running through an environment that required it. It was as if my body was reacting to every command I was giving it, whether it was conscious or subconscious. My biology was responding to every bit of information locked in my mind and the mess of genetics in me.

We had been taught about Mercer's abilities through McMullen's speeches and theories. What we had seen in the field was rather close to what he had come up with. If I had become infected with that particular strain of Blacklight, then I was also reconstructing my genetic structure without even knowing it.

And the scientist I had consumed had contributed to the pool of genetics that my body was now pulling cards out of. Already my thinking had become more focused, more logical. Not only that, but now I had years of medical experience that I never had to work for.

The idea of all of this would be exciting were I not so disgusted with myself. I had become the very thing I hate, and done something I could never imagine doing again.

I was looking for a place to hide out in, a structure that had been abandoned, and hopefully had already been cleared out by a Blackwatch search squad. I skidded to a halt, having found one. I tried to ignore the fact that I had kicked asphalt from a solidly packed road.

The building had black scorch marks from a fire, and the entrance to it had been spray painted with a crude Blackwatch seal. I checked the door to find it locked. As easy as it would have been to kick it open, I decided a locked door would come in handy and began looking for an opening in the building. Part of a wall was collapsed from an explosion, it was high up, but I could climb it.

The new part of my mutated brain reminded me of Zeus' incredible physical abilities. He had been recorded jumping heights that went beyond a few of these buildings stacked on top of each other. And if Zeus had this ability, then I did too.

I hated comparing myself to that monstrosity, but there was no avoiding the truth.

I began flexing my leg muscles, preparing to jump to the window. I heard a strange whirring noise. Looking down I saw tendrils of black and red encircling my legs, drawing power to that area of my body.

Immediately, I stopped flexing my leg muscles. The tendrils faded back into my body.

That disgust I had in myself doubled. I was more disgusted in the fact that it felt so natural than the existence of the tendrils.

"Fuck…" The word encompassed all of my disgust, self loathing, and anger.

Alex Mercer… All of this was his fault, and he would pay.


	3. Chapter 3

I abandoned the building after a sleepless night filled with revenge plots and steadily increasing self loathing. Curious of my biology, I had attempted to do something that made Alex Mercer the security nightmare that he was. I attempted to disguise myself as the scientist I had consumed.

Physically, it felt as natural as anything else had. But mentally, it felt as if I had skinned someone and pulled their flesh over my own. Needless to say, I didn't stay that way for long. I walked away from my makeshift home as myself, Blackwatch uniform and all.

The further I got away from the former infected zone, the more civilians I saw. Eventually I was in a clean, undamaged part of the city, getting lost in crowds. Most people saw my attire and kept their distance.

Others saw my lack of a weapon and became cocky.

The looks I ignored. I had more important things to deal with than these maggots. What wore on my patience were the shoulder bumps. Eventually I got irritated and pushed back at one of my offenders. I may be questionable as far as Blackwatch was concerned, but I still wore the seal, and I still had authority.

"Watch where you're going shit head." The jackass had the balls to flip me off along with his remark. My anger overflowed my biological predicament. Venting on some asshole wasn't going to harm anything. I pushed again, harder this time.

"Go fuck yourself moron." I began walking away, satisfied with the look of pain on his face.

"Suck it." His voice sounded timid this time. His arrogance pushed me over the edge. I whipped around and took a few hard steps to him, pushing hard enough to knock him down and let him skid for a few feet.

"Fuck! Fuck you!" I closed the new distance and kicked him in the ribs. A few loud snaps and a scream told me I kicked harder than I intended to.

I picked the guy up and twisted his arm around behind him, forcing him against a building.

"This street is filled with shit-bags like you. No one would give a shit if one of them died." He only yelled some more and struggled. My grip was too tight for him to get out of. Maybe too tight for his bones to hold up. I could feel little things in his wrist start to give out under the pressure.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing?" I glanced behind me to see a city cop jogging across the street. Much of the police had quit their posts, but a small few had some stupid morals that they hung onto. The rest died in infected zones.

"Fuck off you fuck-ball. This little shit is mine." I returned my attention and twisted his arm up higher. His agonized yell followed the pop of his joints coming apart.

"I don't care what authority you think you have here. Put the guy down." I heard the click of his weapon being cocked. I looked at him again, tweaking the asshole's arm one more time before shoving him away. The cop kept holding the gun to my face, likely confused on what he should do next.

"You gonna shoot me dirt bag?" I saw the look of nervousness cross through his eyes. Both of us blocked out the sound of the street, only hearing the sound of my gas mask.

"Just… Just lay off, okay?" His hands started to shake.

"You ignorant fuck. You know what this place is? It's a war zone." I put his arm down and shoved him. "We're fighting a biological enemy with no front line." I shoved him again, seeing his fear rising. "You know how to fight an enemy like this? You cut off its food supply."

He tried to point his gun at me again. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed, making him drop it.

"You, and everyone else in this forsaken city, are nothing more than raw materials for the enemy to use. HQ doesn't give a fuck if this whole place is leveled. The country is 3,400 miles wide, and it inhabits over 300,000,000 people. One city down for the sake of the country is nothing."

The pain on his face was evident as I continued squeezing.

"Step in the way of our mission again, and you will know a pain reserved to those who defy martial law." I shoved him one last time, causing him to fall. I turned away and started walking away, stepping hard on his gun, breaking it.

* * *

The Blacklight infected Blackwatch soldier continued off to wherever he was going, but hadn't thought of the repercussions of leaving a witness alive.

The cop had gotten up to retrieve his weapon to see it had been crushed and broken into a few pieces like a cheap plastic toy. He looked up to see the soldier turning a corner, casually pushing someone to the side.

The cop had seen a lot of things during his time under quarantine, and he knew that this was out of his league. Who ever this man was, he wasn't Blackwatch. He talked like one, threatened like one, and shoved like one, but something about him seemed off. The police officer couldn't pin it down, but he was going to report this to Blackwatch anyway. They could do more than he could.

* * *

I needed to get to a military base. I felt naked without any armament. I only needed a few things. Then I would disappear before some dumbass marine reported to his, "superiors". I began seeing more soldiers patrolling the sidewalks, walking around in disorganized groups.

The base came into my view, lights blaring from all corners. I picked up pace, eager to arm myself.

I had completely forgotten about the viral detectors. Two began to sound a warning alarm once I was in their range. Looking around, I saw the soldiers become a little more on edge. I backed away as inconspicuously as I could, avoiding their glances.

I cursed in my head, trying to think of something.

One of those foreign memories surfaced. They were becoming less foreign as time passed.

"_We have footage of a suspicious soldier tinkering with the viral detectors. At first it seemed as if he were performing maintenance, but then we see the detector go from a warning alarm, to reading clean. Further investigation shows him doing this to every sensor outside of the base, right before entering it."_

"_Zeus?"_

"_Without a doubt."_

These outside memories were more useful than I gave them credit for. The scientist… No, I knew basically how the sensor equipment worked. If I could get close enough, I could probably deactivate the sensors.

Stealth was imperative. The area was full of dumb-fuck marines and armored vehicles. They may be reluctant to use their weapons on civilians, but when scared shitless, their trigger fingers suddenly became miniature vices on their weapons. And nothing scares a man on edge more than something they can't kill.

The first sensor began to beep its warning again. I made my way to it as quickly and casually as possible, hoping my proximity wouldn't set it off. I looked around, making sure no one was watching me, then opened the maintenance panel and started pulling some wires.

I had to make sure to pull the right ones, and plug them into the right ports in order to keep it from going off. If I made a mistake, or if I took too long, the siren would go off and expose me.

I felt my first bout of nervousness since my infection as I thought I had made a mistake, but then I heard the dying murmur of the detector. Good. Now I could do this as many times as I needed to.

The deactivation was temporary, but I would be gone before they came back online. I repeated this with every sensor around the base, except the one on the roof. It would be too risky to go up there.

Once I was done I began jogging to the base's entrance. No one would question me. Not even the marine base commander, as long as they didn't see what I was picking up.

The door opened after I put in the right code. The inside was full of radio chatter and over relaxed soldiers. I ignored them all, going to the armory. Some of them glanced, but none of them attempted to stop me.

I grabbed an M4 and a few clips, putting them onto my vest. I only needed a few grenades, and a sidearm. Once everything was in place, I began checking my rifle, making sure it was clean and functioning.

"Lose your rifle, soldier?"

I turned around to see the base commander. He didn't wear a balaclava and helmet like the other soldiers. He only wore a hat and a pair of sunglasses.

There wasn't any time for this shit.

"Take it up with Red Crown." I shoved past him and back into the main area of the base.

"No need. I'm under direct orders to arrest any suspicious soldier in the vicinity of base establishments." Security was tighter than I thought. Had they seen me tinkering with the sensors?

"We were told to be especially wary of any Blackwatch troopers who seemed… Off. Seems Zeus has taken a liking to the Blackwatch uniform."

Fucking Zeus… That germ bag was just making it worse and worse for me.

"Zeus has nothing to do with me. I'm only out to kill him, not be accused of being him. So get out of my fucking way." The insistent bastard wouldn't leave.

"Drop your weapons soldier! You're under arrest! Move one more inch and I'll shoot."

I turned to him to see his rifle aimed at me. I was getting really tired of having weapons pointed in my face.

I began walking toward him, ready to exert my Blackwatch authority.

He fired once into my chest.

It hurt, just like it used to, only the pain didn't linger for long. I looked at him and advanced more.

"It's Zeus! I need back-" I punched him as hard as I could, clearing through his chest and out of his back.

I heard the yells of the other marines in the area, all converging on me. The base commander fell dead.

More bullets contacted my back. I turned and fired upon my attackers, managing to take a few out with some easy head shots.

Alarms sounded and I knew that more marines were on their way.

"Fuck…" With the alarm on, the doors wouldn't open. I would have to break through the door instead.

The reinforcements began firing on me now. As easy as it was to shrug off bullet wounds now, they were beginning to wear on me. My wounds healed almost instantly, but the pain was lingering more. I fired in bursts into the group, trying to keep them away. The door was locked, but I was confident that I could break it down.

I began kicking at the door, making visible dents in the metal. More bullets rained from behind me as I kept kicking. The door finally came loose and fell out. I saw the shocked look of the soldiers outside. It took them a moment to start shooting.

I didn't understand what was going on. My vision was starting to fade, and my body was in horrible pain. My wounds were beginning to heal at a slower rate, blood dripping steadily.

There were too many soldiers for me to take on. And I couldn't see any good escape route. The roads were blocked by armor vehicles.

A missile from an APC managed to hit me dead on. The blast knocked me off of my feet and sent me tumbling through the air, but somehow my body was intact. I was still durable enough to take a large blast from an explosion.

I managed to land on my feet, but now I was weak. I couldn't take much more of this.

If I was going to live, I would need to do something I despised with all of my being.

I sprinted forward, despite my weakness, right into the throng of marines. I grabbed one by the neck and threw him to the ground. I stepped on his neck, breaking it. This time I felt the tendrils reaching out, taking the man's biomass and drawing it into me.

I resisted the memories and focused on my current situation. I began firing on the remaining soldiers, unsure on what I should do against the APCs.

More soldiers kept coming in, and soon I was out of ammunition.

I dodged another missile, but got caught in its blast.

That's when I saw something hit the ground. It came from a neighboring rooftop, and landed as if it had jumped from a curb to the road.

Mercer.

I watched it begin to take down all the soldiers that surrounded it, easily killing the entire squad. It nimbly dodged a missile, transforming its right arm into a long double edged blade.

It then jumped into the air and swung it's blade down with enough force to demolish the APC that had attacked it.

I could only watch, not knowing what to do. Mercer quickly dispatched the rest of the soldiers and the last few APCs.

This was my chance. I had to take him down now. I began charging toward him, gathering strength to my arm. I was about to connect my fist to him when his blade arm ran across my body and knocked me back. I sailed through the air and right into a wall, a large slash across my body.

I looked up to see him running up the side of the building to the roof. He took a stance and began gathering his biomass to the outside of his body. He suddenly rammed his fists into the building, causing black spires of hardened material to rip throughout the entire building. The former military base began to crumble and collapse. The monstrosity managed to jump to the ground before the building collapsed completely.

Debris landed near me, and I was covered in dust. I could still see Mercer just standing there.

I stood up, my wound healed completely.

All of that hatred surfaced again. It was even more intense then before. I was drawing on the emotions of my victims as well, adding their hatred to my own.

"MERCER!" Every bit of disgust in myself, and in all things I used to hate transferred to Alex Mercer. It had always been my mission, only now I had the means to carry it out.

I survived and became infected for the purpose of finally killing Alex Mercer. That was my sole purpose of life now. And I would do anything and everything to succeed.

I charged at him again. His right arm was no longer deformed into the blade shape.

I let out an inhuman yell as I ran to him, every cell in my body anxious to see him die.

He merely countered my attack with a quick stab through my chest. The blades of his claws going right through my body. I could actually feel one of the claws through my heart. It kept beating, even though it was almost cleaved in half.

I flailed slightly, trying to pull myself off of the claw. He held me up higher, as if to consume me. I squeezed as hard as I could at his arm, but the black material his arms were now made out of was too hard to crush.

I began gathering strength to my arm, hearing the whir of the tendrils as they charged. I saw his eyes go wide for just a moment as he saw this happening. I released that punch right into his face, knocking him off his feet, his claw slipping out of my body.

We both landed on our feet, still ready to fight.

"You compromised my existence. You ruined my life. And you'll pay!" I jumped in the air this time, about to bring my boot down on his head. He plucked me out of the air and threw me into some debris.

"Your life was ruined the moment you decided to join Blackwatch. And your fate was sealed the moment I killed Randall. You and the infection are nothing more than a headless colony of insects. Both of you will die out soon." He stepped down hard on my leg, breaking it.

I grunted slightly, already feeling my leg pull itself back together. I stood back up, my bones still resetting themselves. He rammed his blade arm through my chest and held me up. The blade was so sharp that as I grasped it, it sliced my skin open.

"You and the rest of Blackwatch won't survive this mission." I felt my body slide down the blade slightly, my breathing caught up in pain. I managed just a few words through the agony.

"I'm not Blackwatch… Anymore… I am… Blacklight!" I managed to kick him in the chest and pull myself off of his blade. He tumbled back once again, taking a moment longer to recover.

I needed something. Something to block that blade of his. My body wouldn't take too many more hits from it. I'd seen that blade rip through tank armor as if it were a wet napkin. In order to block an organic blade, I would need an organic shield. Memories surfaced of Mercer forming a wall of black material to block oncoming attacks.

I had to do the same thing. Draw up a wall of biological armor to keep that blade from me.

I concentrated on controlling my biomass, to use it to create a shield of hardened biological material. I felt a weight on my back, as if I were wearing a heavy backpack.

I felt something thick crawl over my left arm, amassing on my forearm. A large black shield formed in front of my arm, allowing me to move it in any direction I needed.

Mercer watched me do this, preparing another attack. I held my newly formed shield up with determination.

Mercer began running forward, swinging his blade in front of him madly. Two strikes contacted my shield, weakening it considerably. I brought a kick from around my shield and struck him in the ribs.

I still wasn't strong enough to cause much damage. He could break my bones, and my attacks barely left a scratch on him.

He brought his blade down on me, breaking what remained of my shield. I fell back, feeling my damaged shield retreat to my back to regenerate itself. Before I could get up, Mercer was on top of me, blade through my chest once more, pinning me to the ground.

I couldn't find a place to grip to get free of the blade. I looked into the eyes, waiting for him to give the final strike.

Both of us froze at the guttural and almost painful roar of multiple beasts.

I saw the tiniest smirk at the corner of his mouth.

"You're pathetic. I'll let them take care of you." He pulled the blade from me, reforming it back into an arm.

I got up and tried to run after him. A black tendril hit my side and knocked me back down. By the time I got up, he was gone. I searched the rooftops, trying to find him.

I heard the same guttural roar, closer this time.

I looked at the rooftops behind me, seeing the pink hide of a hunter. It let out a more bestial roar, calling to whatever friends it had with it.

"Fuck…" My shield had regenerated itself, but I knew that it wouldn't hold up to these things for long.

I couldn't face them, not alone. I would have to lead them to a military zone and let the marines distract them. I let my shield dissolve and began running away from them.

The recent addition to my mind let me know where the nearest military base was.

All the pedestrians and commuters panicked as I ran by them, at least three hunters in tow. I was easily clearing what little traffic there was, leaving dents in car roofs. The hunters, however, were merely shouldering the vehicles to the side, killing some civilians.

They were too fast. One of them leaped to me and swiped at my back. I managed to land on my feet and keep running, but the damage was staggering.

Straight road wasn't good terrain for losing hunters. I looked at the surrounding buildings. I wasn't sure of the mechanism that Mercer used to run up buildings, but I would have to learn fast. I jumped to the nearest building, managing to hit it dead on. I had enough momentum to keep my feet planted on the vertical surface, so I began running as if I were on the ground.

My body seemed to respond naturally, keeping me attached to the wall as I ran across it. As the building's edge came up, I jumped to the next. It all seemed so natural, easy, as if I'd been doing this all my life.

The hunters continued following me, running across the walls as well. I headed for a roof, going for a better view of the city.

Then it became a chase across the rooftops. It seemed that my jumps were becoming more powerful the more I used them. Or perhaps it was the people I had consumed. Either way, it was easier to jump from rooftop to rooftop. The only problem was that it was easy for the hunters as well. Despite their size and deformity, they were extremely fast and agile.

I could see the military base now. I dropped back down to street level, hoping an APC was patrolling the area. No luck.

I kept running, hearing the impacts of the hunters hitting the asphalt.

The closer I got to the base, the more likely running into armored vehicles would be. Plus the commotion these things were causing would draw in the entire city's military forces.

The base was in sight, and the soldiers were abundant. Most of them didn't know what to do seeing these beasts following a Blackwatch trooper that was running over the legal speed limit.

An APC was rolling out of the boundaries of the base. The gunner spotted us and began firing at the more credible threats. I turned away from them and began running up another building, pausing at the rooftop. The hunters engaged the marines, hopefully forgetting about me.

I turned away from the scene and began walking away. The rumbling of something heavy moving fast stopped me.

I looked behind me to see the third hunter jump onto the roof of the building, making a crater in the concrete. It roared at me, its torn and deformed face conveying its bloodlust with no issue.

My shield seemed to come back reflexively. I was tired of running. If I couldn't kill Mercer now, then I would practice on this deformed beast.

It charged at me on all fours, bringing its claw up to strike at me. I ducked and rolled to the side and hit as hard as I could into what I thought were its ribs. It actually recoiled and cringed. I took the chance to deliver a kick into its stomach, and another punch before it swatted me away.

The thing was almost three times my size, yet I was holding my own against it. I became more sure of myself, of my strength.

I charged to it and unleashed a barrage of attacks on it, breaking what skeletal structure it had, and ripping open its pink hide.

Something happened to it. It stumbled back, holding at its wounds as what looked like blood erupted from its mouth. It stood like this for a long time.

"_It's weak soldier. Over power it before it recovers!"_

The voice was stronger than ever, driving me on a physiological level. I ran to the beast and jumped up to it. I gripped its neck tightly and snapped it. Those tendrils reached out again and drew in as much of its mass as I could hold.

Its limp body collapsed on the ground, dead.

No memories rushed into my head, (save for distorted images), but some other form of knowledge came to be.

I felt power flow through my entire being. I felt twice as strong, twice as durable. But I also felt something else, a stronger control of myself, on a level I hadn't mastered yet.

It wasn't anything that was in words. It was something only my biology could interpret.

And it understood fully what it was told.

The red and black tendrils enveloped my arms, drawing in mass from the rest of my body. I could feel the process of strengthening and hardening in my arms. The tendrils settled down and revealed the long blades on the ends of my fingers. My arms had become hardened spiked tendrils crisscrossing each other into tightly packed limbs.

The hunter had revealed more secrets of my biology. It had taught me how to more accurately control my biomass.

The more I consumed, the stronger I got. This was the secret to destroying Mercer.

I made my arms return to normal and walked away from the dead body of the hunter.


	4. Chapter 4

I accepted my predicament. I was no longer human. I was just a monstrosity, born from the rib of a greater monstrosity. I would no longer fight my biology, fight my being. If I did, I would only hinder my mission.

Mercer was responsible. For everything. And to beat him, I would have to be the very thing I despised.

Funny. This was the Blackwatch ideal. The end justifies the means.

I was more of a Blackwatch soldier now then I ever was. I was more determined, more able, and much more sacrificing. I would sacrifice this whole city, the whole Marine Corps, the entire Blackwatch unit, and what ever remained of my soul, all to destroy Alex Mercer.

I looked down at my new arms, twisted, morphed, and deformed into the claws that Mercer himself wielded. They were the first step to my biological success. The next step awaited me at the hive a few blocks down the road.

I began running across the rooftops, picking up speed as I vaulted from building to building. My body was responding to the environment instantaneously, becoming stronger as it was asked to. If I consumed more hunters, more walkers, and even the military attacking the hive, I would have much more information for my genetics to feed upon.

I stopped at a rooftop right across from the infected hive. Marines in tanks were attacking the hive, ground troops fighting off the walkers. A helicopter passed over me, firing a few rounds across the sores in the side of the building.

The stolen memories reminded me of the usefulness of operating aircraft, but also reminded me of how easily Mercer could destroy such things. They were next to useless.

The only thing I would need from this conflict is information, and DNA. Artificially accelerated evolution.

I dropped to the street, drawing the attention of the marines fighting off the walkers. The tanks were preoccupied with the hunters, and wouldn't do much to me unless I attacked them directly.

I grabbed the first moving thing near me, a walker. It was a pathetic excuse for an infected soldier, flailing around dumbly, gargling its own blood.

I wrapped a claw around its head and squeezed it into mush. Consuming was becoming easier now. I barely noticed the passing images of a virus crazed mind.

A marine fired upon me, bullets ricocheting off my shield. He was next. I ran to him, careful to not just ram him with the shield. I diced up his body, hearing him yell for a short while as he disappeared in me. I gained more from him than I did from the walker. Including a chance encounter he had with Mercer.

I saw through the marine's eyes as he looked up, lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Mercer as he seemed to drift through air. He seemed to float like a piece of paper. These thoughts brought an onslaught of memories of childhood experiments.

Gliding. Mercer seemed to be able to make his biomass lighter than air for a short moment, and glide through the air as though he were a base jumper. That would come in handy.

I came back to the present, hearing the collective roars of the hunters being spawned by the hive.

I looked over to see one hunter caught up in the crossfire of two tanks and a few soldiers. He was weakened enough for me to consume right now.

I ran to him as fast as I could, pummeling through the soldiers with my shield. I jumped to it, knocking it down, and began the process of killing it and consuming it.

I felt the same rush of power. My body felt even more powerful, denser. I felt as If I was carrying more within than I could possibly hold. And with this density of biomass, I felt a state of power I couldn't have ever fantasized about.

Strangely enough, I even felt relaxed. My body felt right, now, almost complete, as If I had been striving to reach this state of being. I looked at the tank that had began firing its machine gun at me.

As if by instinct, I rammed my claw into the ground, easily burying it. I felt a large amount of my mass slither through the ground as if it were loose sand, and erupted through the ground under the tank in multiple black spires. The tank was pierced through multiple times, and something within it combusted. The spires retreated back to me.

An explosive shell made contact with my shield and shattered it. I recovered from the blast and performed the same attack. It felt strange to move my mass so far from my body, yet, it was a welcome change. I dispatched the rest of the marines panicking in the area and turned my attention to the hive.

The whole thing pulsed sickly, throwing another hunter out into the world, as if it sensed my presence.

I tried the same trick with the hunter, but missed. It was too fast to get caught up in the tangle of spires coming up from the ground. The mass was too slow in coming back to me, so the hunter had a good opportunity to swing its filthy claws at me.

I flew back a ways, but recovered. The thing was already charging at me again. I rolled to the side and began slashing at it, creating gashes and stab wounds. It swatted me away again.

It was beginning to move slowly now, so I tried to get it caught in the groundspike again. I managed to clip it, but it dodged the majority of the spires. It got a few swipes on me again while my body retrieved the biomass.

I jumped up, swiveling myself around the hunter's neck so I was on its back, and began stabbing it repeatedly in the neck. I jumped down, dragging my claw down its spine as I did so. It tumbled forward and rolled onto its back, blood gushing from its wounds.

I leaped through the air and stabbed it through the face, tendrils reaching out of me to consume it.

The now familiar sense of power came to me, increasing my mass even further, opening new pathways in my biology. I felt more comfortable in my body, more in control.

I looked up at the hive, still pulsating and gushing out red material from its sores.

I jumped up to the roof, an idea brewing in my head. I had learned how to move my own biomass out of my body. I could take it a step further, and tap into that overfilled reservoir I now had.

I began bringing that dense biomass from deep within my body, began making it flow outside of my body. That seemed to unleash a power that I could barely contain. I struggled with my own body, trying to contain and control the flow of mass. I then rammed my fists into the roof of the hive and let it flow out. Spires, larger than myself erupted all around me, ripping through the concrete and organic material this building was made out of with ease.

The building didn't collapse, as I thought it would. I hadn't unleashed enough biomass to do so. I still felt a large amount within me, so I began trying to bring it out again.

A loud, ear splitting roar stopped me. I could actually feel the air around me ripple from the power of the roar, the whole building shaking. I looked behind me to see something trying to rip itself out of one of the holes my spire had caused.

It seemed like a hunter. But it sounded more fierce, more monstrous.

The creature exploded from the rooftop, landing heavily in front of me. I actually lost my balance from its landing. It roared right in my face, both of its mouths unleashing sound waves that pushed me back, off of the roof of the hive.

It pushed me off a building, and caused damage to me, with its voice!

I barely managed to land on my feet, looking up as the monster leaped down.

It landed far behind me and roared again.

What I was seeing was impossible. All the Leader Hunters disappeared after Greene had been killed by Mercer. There was no report from anyone in the field seeing another leader hunter on the entire island. They were assumed to have been killed by Mercer, or to have died after the demise of Greene.

This thing must have been hiding all this time, waiting to make its presence known. I had to find a way to kill it, or it would kill me without hesitation.

My claws wouldn't be enough to take it down. I would have to travel down those new biological pathways to find a way to kill it. I began to gather strength to me arms, reinforcing them. The mass around my claws and up to my elbow had become more smooth, and a lighter shade. I had increased my muscle mass to more than twice my full strength. Hopefully that would be enough.

It was already charging at me, making craters with each step. I jumped out of the way of its attack, only to be caught up in the aftershocks. I had never seen a leader hunter this close before, and I never imagined it being this strong.

I moved to attack, only to be hit by another ground shattering smack. I wasn't fast enough to avoid the next one, or the next one. I felt drained from this thing's onslaught. It jumped back, its body heaving.

It had tired itself out. I charged at it, gathering strength to the new mass of muscles I had conjured up. I exerted that strength in full, bringing my claws slashing across the creature's body. With the added strength, they were not only able to pierce the hunter's hide, but also rip out chunks of its flesh.

I took a few more swipes before the thing pushed me away roughly.

It seemed to look at me intensely with its eyeless face, mouths open and constantly emitting growls.

I began gathering even more strength to my arms. More than I was capable of holding. As the beast charged to me, I tried to slow down time. Everything seemed to be in slow motion to me. My brain was working faster. I steadied myself, and positioned my body perfectly, waiting for the right moment to strike.

I waited until the thing's arm was raised above me, about to come down in a bone crushing slam. I swung my claw with all the force in my body, right through the creature's arm.

Time caught up and the hunter's arm was severed cleanly. The limb twitched as it bled out a little.

The leader reeled back, blood gushing out of its stump of an arm. I delivered another strike into its side, causing a gash so deep it severed its spine.

It fell to its side, attempting to right itself with its remaining limbs. The very moment it managed to get up, I was on top of it, attempting to consume it. With a severed spine, it shouldn't have even been moving. As I tried to break its neck, I noticed that it seemed to have two sets of vertebrae going through it. It reached back and pulled me off of it.

The thing was still moving because it had two spinal columns. But it wouldn't last long. It was still weak.

I ran back to it, breaking its neck to weaken it further, then breaking its remaining spine. Those tendrils were becoming my best friends. They pulled in the creature's mass as it shrieked piercingly.

What surprised me was that everything went black. I didn't feel the sensation of power as I sapped the beast's life force. I felt it resisting.

No, that wasn't right. It felt as if something were resisting through the creature itself. Like a game of tug-a-war.

The more I attempted to pull in the blackness, the more the blackness resisted. We were at a constant stalemate.

"_You… Are not him."_

A voice spoke, echoing in the darkness that surrounded me. It was raspy and tired, yet distinctly female.

"Who are you?" The voice didn't answer right away. I could feel what ever it was move closer to me. Not physically though. It all felt like it was in my head, only closer.

"_I am your mother."_

The words didn't make sense to me, but a shiver ran through my body, and every cell seemed to suddenly be on edge. A quiet whisper went through me, penetrating not only my mind, but my very biology.

"_You are my mother."_

I didn't say it. It felt like a collective whisper from every cell in my body, yearning to find the source of the voice like a lost child.

It was the first time in the past couple days that I felt betrayed by my biology. That sense of control was gone, replaced by fear that I would lose myself again. I feared being part of that collective that almost claimed me the first time I died.

"_You are like him... Have been touched by him… But you were not born from him."_

"What are you talking about?"

"_My wayward child…"_

"Mercer?"

"_Yes…"_

The force suddenly gave out, allowing what was left of the leader hunter's body to slip into me. The darkness lifted and I was back in the physical world.

What garbled mess that settled into the beast's mind became my own. I saw images of Elizabeth Greene, of the city and its red mist, and multiple leader hunters.

The images became more focused, and I saw through a section of a collective. Mercer was attacking the whole, destroying it piece by piece. I could feel Greene's commands through the collective, controlling it. The collective was on the verge of death, and Greene knew it. Once the supports went out, Greene pulled back what remained of the collective and ripped a piece of herself away, creating a puppet. She retreated with the rest of the collective and went deeper than any Bloodtox could ever reach. The puppet fell to Mercer, and deceived him with unclear images of Greene's past.

The creature's memory seemed to stop there, becoming the blurry collective of red filtered images, ending abruptly as I killed it.

The message was clear. Elizabeth Greene survived, and continues to live under ground. There was no telling how large her army truly was.

The walkers and what remained of the hunters on the surface, they seemed to be going through the routine of infection, repeating the same pattern mindlessly. It was a farce. They were only covering for Greene, making it seem like her invisible hand of leadership had disappeared. Even the almighty Mercer had been deceived.

But she said something else. She said I had not been born from him.

What did she mean by that?


	5. Chapter 5

Greene's words bothered me for the next few days. I continued my attempts at gaining strength, avoiding hives in case another leader emerged from it. The Leader I had taken gave me new senses, and even more physical strength.

I still felt lacking compared to Mercer. If I were to ever face him, I would need something more than strength and the strange ability to see infection in the living creatures around me.

Even with my enhanced ability to control my body mass, it wasn't enough. I had learned how to transform my right arm into what Red Crown had nicknamed the whipfist. It was a sharp tendril capable of reaching far and attacking multiple enemies.

Combining these new abilities was extremely efficient as well. I was becoming a living weapon, constantly training myself, constantly consuming, never resting.

I had even developed an uncanny ability to evade the marines whenever I slipped up and exposed myself.

Civilians fell prey to me, and I wore many faces now. I suppressed the memories from these people, trying to keep myself from becoming soft. A weapon with the memories of an average civilian wasn't a very effective weapon.

I was in the middle of training, testing the limits of my transforming abilities. I had increased the strength of my muscle mass power even more, and made my groundspike faster and more deadly. The places that became my practice grounds were slowly becoming more damaged as time went on.

I was still in my original form, attempting to augment my strength without making noticeable changes in my appearance. I managed to increase the density of my muscles, thereby increasing my overall strength.

I looked out at the city from my rooftop training ground. Bloodtox had been put back into use once Red Crown had determined that the virus wasn't adapting like Mercer had been. It had begun polluting the air of infected zones, slowly killing off the walkers. The hunters were able to resist long enough to move to new areas, so it was a useless battle.

Then again, any attempts to kill off the virus seemed useless now that it was all in perspective. Greene was imbedded so deep in the bedrock that Blackwatch couldn't even detect her, let alone damage her.

The leader hunter's memories suggested that making the decoy had caused a lot of damage to her body. Maybe she was just laying low until she healed. But it seemed as if she were attempting to capture Mercer, for whatever purpose. As she had said, Mercer was merely a variant of what she produced within her body, so what would be the point in capturing him?

That brought up another question. If she could produce such a dangerous form of Blacklight, then why hadn't she used it in the beginning? An army of infected soldiers, all as adaptive and destructive as Mercer. It was a frightening concept. So why had she not done so? Was her mind so far gone that the idea had never occurred to her?

None of it made sense. I would only get my answers from Greene herself, and I wouldn't be able to do that until she resurfaced. The leader hunters could provide clues, but even their minds were garbled messes despite their intended adaptation. Plus it would be difficult to track them down. My encounter was luck. It had mistaken me for Mercer, and that's the only reason it revealed itself.

Then there was the fact that she mentioned I hadn't been born from Mercer. I translated that as not being infected by him, which was impossible. There was no conceivable way I could have been infected by anything else other than Mercer. And everyone who was present at the time Mercer attacked me seemed to be dead. Mercer wasn't the type to leave survivors.

Just about all the new things I had learned came to immediate dead ends. The only people who would have any information at all would be at Red Crown command.

Even if they were in the dark about Greene, they might have seen something I hadn't yet discovered. They might even have satellite images of the road block encounter. Anything would suffice for now. I was desperate for answers.

I began running across rooftops, testing out my new glide ability. It was almost second nature now to glide from building to building, latching onto and running across walls of concrete and glass.

I made sure to keep out of sight of the patrolling helicopters. If any of them saw me moving south, Central command would be on alert for any incoming threat.

I wasn't sure if they had distinguished me from Zeus yet. If any of the higher ups learned that there were two beings like Mercer, they would probably try to nuke the island again.

I was approaching Battery Park, seeing the heavy concentration of marines and Blackwatch troopers. I dropped from the roof, clutching at the wall to slow my descent. I managed to land quietly, leaving a long scar along the building. I disguised myself as a civilian. I would consume a marine on the way in, so I wouldn't be suspicious without a weapon.

I taught myself how to consume someone quietly without anyone noticing. It was a useful ability for sneaking into bases. I walked up to the edge of the alleyway, waiting for a soldier to pass by. There weren't many civilians out at the moment, so no one would see me do this. A marine was walking closer to me, alone.

I tried to look nonchalant, carefully walking around him. As soon as I passed by him I swiveled around, grasping his neck and quickly ripping it out before he could make a sound. Our bodies melted together, rather then me absorbing him. I took his rifle before it could fall.

I walked up to the entrance of Red Crown Command, ignoring the warning siren of the viral detector. There wouldn't be any need to mess with them right now.

The infection was nearby so some of the base was in a cloud of bloodtox. I avoided these areas. I had to lose a strike team through an infected zone, and was forced to run through the bloodtox. It burned like a super powered sulfuric acid. The substance actually seared off portions of my flesh, and my body was struggling to keep up with regenerating.

It would be a long time before I would allow myself to step into bloodtox.

I stepped through the crowds of marines, and passed by the viral detectors before they could be set off, and went behind the main building of HQ.

I became myself again, and entered through the back way. Unlike most military bases, the inside of this one was dimly lit. The fluorescent lights were few and far from each other. Blackwatch soldiers patrolled the hallways, constantly surveying the area.

I passed through them with ease, making my way through the building, looking for a Blackwatch commander. He would have the information I needed. A possible lead, or at the very least, credentials.

I found one, looking over some documents spread out on a table. There were a few troopers around him that he was giving orders to.

"The infection is constantly on the move. We need to speed up the production of the bloodtox blowers and begin placing them in civilian areas. Placing them in red zones won't be good enough. We need to cover this whole city with bloodtox."

He continued on, handing folders to a couple of the troopers, telling them to notify people I hadn't heard of.

They began filing out one by one, passing me by passively. I wasn't too concerned about the bloodtox. It hurt like hell, but I knew I would eventually become immune to it.

Once the commander was alone, I approached him.

"Sir." I saluted briefly.

"Yes, soldier?"

I didn't give him a chance to say anything else, my hand slicing through his skull with a thin blade coming from my palm. I quickly pulled his mass into my own, leaving no blood.

I didn't resist his memories, but sifted through them, actively looking for something useful.

"_We need to administer an experimental substance to your soldiers. Specifically to a member in unit 242."_

"_And what would this substance be?"_

"_I'm sorry sir, that's classified, direct orders from Red Crown command."_

"_Do it quietly. Any of them find out what you're doing, and there will be defection."_

I came out of the haze of the memory, the last image in my head being a secure building on the island. I recognized the building as the new research center after Gentek was compromised.

Someone from there had introduced something to my former unit. I had another lead, so it was time to hunt.

I left the meeting area, back into the hallway. Another trooper passed by me, uniformly indifferent to a fellow Blackwatch soldier.

I was almost to the exit when alarms sounded.

"I saw him move down here, go!"

I dropped my rifle and barreled through the door, easily knocking it off its hinges.

Someone from behind me began firing, alerting the rest of the soldiers outside. I struck the attacker with my whipfist, cutting him in half cleanly. I jumped to the roof of the building before any more people could fire on me.

My hand returned to normal, my wounds already healed. I got a running start before I jumped off the roof, landing in the middle of the crowd of marines. My claws were already formed and I began slicing through the forces.

A grenade met my shield, nearly shattering it.

I sent collection of black spires toward the grenade launcher's owner. As I was occupied, a tank shell exploded on me, shattering my shield and knocking me off my feet. There were too many enemies surrounding me. The tanks were an extreme problem.

I needed something stronger. I needed Mercer's blade.

I concentrated on my right arm, attempting to summon the densest material my body contained. I swung my arm around, hearing the reassuring sound of air being sliced.

I dragged my blade across the concrete I stood on, making a clean line.

Bullets were constantly raining on me, passing through my body at high velocities.

I ran to the nearest tank, slicing through it with ease. My shield regenerated, now blocking the bullets.

Everything was becoming an annoyance. I needed to take them out all at once. I tapped into that deep reservoir, bringing a large amount of my mass to the outside. I unleashed that mass from all around my body, tendrils bursting out of me from all angles. It was almost painful, unleashing this much mass from myself this fast.

The tendrils impaled multiple soldiers, constantly seeking more blood. The tendrils seemed to hit a limit and began returning to me. 90% of the soldiers around me were dead, the rest injured. The tanks were still intact and firing at me actively.

Its heavy machine gun was ripping through me too easily. As I ran to it, it ripped chunks of my body away.

I leaped through the air, bringing my new blade above my head. As I came down, my blade gathering incredible inertia, the machine gun continued firing. The tank became compromised and exploded under me. As I jumped away from it, I noticed that I hit the ground harder than usual.

I looked down at myself, seeing nothing but black organic armor. My exterior had hardened into a thick layer of protective armor, covering my entire body. I felt more powerful than ever before, bullets now ricocheting off of me, very few of them actually penetrating the armor.

I tapped into that reservoir again, summoning the tendrils once more. I unleashed the attack once again, killing the remaining soldiers around me.

More soldiers would be sent into the area, so I began running away. The armor was so dense and heavy that I was actually slowed down by it. I reverted to my normal state and ran up the side of a nearby skyscraper.

By the time I reached the rooftop, the distant gun fire had died out.

* * *

Blackwatch's new R&D sector had answers I needed. They had done something to me, or one of my teammates, and I had to find out what.

The building was in front of me, unguarded. I walked up to its entrance, the door code surfacing to my mind. I punched it in and unlocked the door.

The person at the front desk looked at me, then quickly averted his eyes. I walked around the desk, quickly pulling him up.

"Hey! What're you-" His words were cut short as I head-butted him, killing him instantly. The knowledge of more door and elevator codes became mine. I quickly accessed the security video feed from the desk and deleted the past few minutes.

He had some knowledge of the floors, but not what was going on in the different departments. He was just a security guard, who was verbally abused by Blackwatch frequently.

I went to the elevator, choosing the floor that seemed to be medical research. The elevator stopped at the floor, the doors refusing to open. I entered the code into the panel, the door opening. A Blackwatch guard was standing in the hallway, rifle in hand.

There were no windows in the area, and there was no one watching the security feed. I grabbed him by the neck, holding him up. He held his resolve better then I had.

"You better make sure you kill me you fuck!"

I swung him over my head and slammed him into the floor, breaking his neck.

Once I consumed him, I found another bit of useful information. A conversation he had over heard.

"_This is insane. They want to make another one? Who did they put in charge of Blackwatch anyway?"_

"_I would take it easy if I were you. These guys don't fuck around."_

The scientists inside this room were the ones I was after. I put the correct code into the panel and entered the room, seeing the stereotypical lab equipment scattered across multiple tables.

A few of the researchers looked up from their work, looking away once they saw me.

I turned to the door and punched in a code to lock the door.

I approached the closest scientist and quickly snapped his neck.

I heard expletives from the others before I was engulfed in more information.

"_It's time to fight fire with fire. Trying to generate a cure in Mercer failed, and he overcame the weapon too easily. Bloodtox was effective for a short time, before Mercer adapted against its effects. We need something to destroy him at the cellular level. We need something to consume him."_

The other scientists began panicking, trying to get away. The first one to bolt for the door became snared by me. I crushed his neck and threw him to the ground.

"_Mercer created a monster with that sample from Greene. It was already an effective killing machine, but he did something to it that we could never even calculate. He turned it into something beyond what even Greene could produce."_

"_Is this why we haven't seen this trend in the rest of the infected?"_

"_Yes. Mercer created something different when he modified the Blacklight virus. Greene isn't capable of producing a perfect copy of it. The creature that consumed Captain Cross was as close as she could get, and it was severely flawed. Mercer, is something else entirely."_

The last two tried arming themselves, picking up whatever they could to fight me off.

I walked to them, blocking a swung metal rod.

He was taken down easily with a punch through the chest.

"_Why wasn't anyone else in Penn Station affected as Mercer was?"_

"_The virus is very selective of its hosts. Not just by genetic type, but also by the state of the body it's infecting. Mercer was dead the moment the virus made its way into his body. Surely you've noticed this already? Before consuming, Zeus kills its victims. In order for the virus to become active in a host, the host must be dead."_

"_So the virus would be completely dormant in a living creature?"_

"_Almost. It would take some adjustments before we can introduce the virus into a living host without it affecting him."_

"_Then get working."_

The last scientist was frantically attempting to get out of the room. I made my way to him and stabbed him through the heart.

"_Operation, Carnival III. Development of modified strain of Blacklight to be used in opposition of Zeus. Machine Gunner of unit 242 has the closest genetic sequence for Blacklight compatibility. The virus will be introduced into his system, and upon full viral replication, he will be brought in for final viral activation."_

"_What if he is killed in action? If the virus is activated prematurely, we won't have him in the proper facility to contain him."_

"_We'll put him on road block duty."_

"_And the Blacklight samples?"_

"_They need to be contained under the highest security. There's a building near the bloodtox facility."_

There were no words to describe my rage. No phrases in the many languages I knew. Not even a human spectrum of emotion to contain the destructive fury emanating from me.

I unleashed the excess biomass from my body, ripping through the walls and collapsing support beams.

The only thing anyone could have seen from the outside was the building slowly crumbling in on itself.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex Mercer watched as the building collapsed, only a few buildings away. He had been watching the soldier for the past few days, seeing his progress. He recognized the building as the new research department. It was the same building he was taken to when he faked being neutralized by bloodtox, where McMullen shot himself.

The Blackwatch soldier burst from the rubble as the dust began to settle, not a scratch on him. He looked to the sky and unleashed an agonized yell of frustration. Even through his mask, Mercer could hear him clearly.

The soldier had found his answers, and they weren't what he wanted to hear. Mercer had gone through the same thing, only he had no memories of the real Mercer's life. The soldier still remembered his life, still remembered what he had lost.

Mercer watched as the soldier jumped up to the nearest building and disappeared.

Before he was out of site, Mercer watched him through infected vision, seeing how brightly the soldier glowed. He almost showed up as Mercer did.

He would have to take the soldier out soon, before he became too strong.

* * *

"Our research building has been destroyed. Luckily only a small portion of our scientists were at the site once it collapsed." A small task force of Blackwatch had gathered at Red Crown command. They had been hand picked by the new captain of the Wisemen Team.

"Lock the doors. Shut off the power for the room." The room was locked down and faded to pitch black. The dim glow of small glow sticks illuminated the room just enough for the troopers to see their commander.

"The following information is restricted, beyond top secret." The Captain removed his gas mask and goggles, pulling off his balaclava as well.

"One of our own is infected with a variant of the Blacklight virus. He has become a creature similar to codename Zeus. This infection, was not accidental." The silence in the room continued, not even a whisper flowing through.

"This soldier was a subject of Carnival III, a project geared to creating a being capable of destroying Zeus. The virus was activated prematurely, and the project became rogue. He has been spotted multiple times infiltrating military bases, and even engaging Zeus. Our latest information suggests that he is aware of Carnival III." The Captain stepped down from his podium, walking among the soldiers he had picked himself.

"The Wisemen Team's objectives have been changed. We are no longer hunting codename Zeus. Our orders are to track down, and capture the subject of Carnival III, alive. We will be on constant helicopter patrol, and our explosive weapons will be loaded with bloodtox. We only have a short window before he develops an immunity to the substance."

The collective resolve of the room seemed to become tangible for a moment.

"To highlight the importance of this mission, the remaining D-code soldiers will be accompanying us. Move out."

The doors opened and the Wisemen team filed out, the Captain replacing his mask before leaving with them.

None of them had the optical spectrum to see the various soldiers in the room that were infected beyond Blackwatch regulations. They were infected carriers, unknowingly leaking information to the hive mind. And the central mind of the hive was listening very intently, almost ready to strike.

* * *

I ran in the direction of Harlem, wanting to destroy the remaining Blacklight samples. I wouldn't let them do this to anyone else. Then, after those samples were gone, I would have to destroy Mercer, the source of the samples.

The only loose end would be me. I would deal with it when the time was right.

The buildings were becoming shorter, and I was still moving extremely fast. I didn't care who saw me. I heard people's screams and shouts. They had good reason to be scared.

If I faced Mercer, there was no telling how much damage this city would suffer.

The bloodtox facility was in view, the entire compound shrouded in a cloud of the red substance. I looked at the building I had seen in my stolen memories. It just seemed like an old warehouse. The inside was probably crawling with Blackwatch. I would have to be fast.

As soon as I began to run to the edge of the rooftop, I felt something pierce my body.

A large blade protruded from my chest, ripping through me easily.

"I admit it. I underestimated you. I forgot what disgusting scum you Blackwatch are." The blade was ripped from my body, and I was kicked forward.

"I forgot what you were willing to do in your blind pursuit of containment." I turned around to see Mercer, red and black tendrils encircling his body. The material enveloped him briefly before revealing a Blackwatch soldier in full gear. When he spoke, he spoke with the hundreds of voices he had stolen, all at once.

"_When we hunt, we kill! No one is safe! Nothing is sacred! We are Blackwatch! We are the last line of defense! We will burn our own to hold the red line! It is the last line to ever hold!"_

It was disturbing to hear all those voices, the voices of my former comrades, speaking the creed we had all recited once.

Mercer discarded the disguise.

"This city has suffered enough. I'll make sure that you are wiped clean from this place." He began running to me, blade formed and raised.

I managed to block his blade with my own, my knees buckling slightly under the pressure.

"There's more to it than that Mercer. You don't even know what fucking game you're playing." I mustered all the strength in my being, throwing my entire body through the attack. I managed to push him back to the opposite edge of the rooftop.

"Blackwatch has samples of your fucked up virus. I'm the result of their idiocy, and you are their source. I'm going to bring you all down." I ran to him, ready to chop him in half.

He barely managed to block the attack, attempting to counter. The short end of his blade sunk into my torso.

We continued like this across various buildings, caving in rooftops and destroying A/C units. I was surprised at the inactivity of any military forces. We were so close to the bloodtox facility, but no one was reacting. The only reason Blackwatch didn't react to blatant threats, was if they had something else in mind.

I was brought out of my distracted thoughts by a heavy blow to my front. The huge slash across my chest actually took some time to heal.

Both of us had become winded. Even he seemed somewhat weary. I transformed by left hand into a claw, ramming it into the concrete and sending spires his way. He almost got away, the spires managing to pierce through one of his arms and legs.

We ran at each other at the same time, running blades into each other's torsos. We were almost evenly matched.

I reformed my claw into muscle mass, delivering a punch to Mercer's face.

He tumbled back, regaining his stance quickly. My right arm melted down into the muscle mass as well.

Mercer seemed to be interested in this change, as he followed suit.

Strange, almost a week ago I was guarding a road, keeping civilians out. Now, I was about to rip apart an abomination, an abomination that I mirrored too closely for me to think about. I didn't care about me. All I cared about was his death.

I drew upon my combat experience, my own and the experience I had stolen. Not just from the soldiers, but also from the hunters. I drew upon their true, raw anger. I took everything I had in me, and focused it on the task of killing Mercer.

I began running to him, fists clenched tightly, biomass whirling around them erratically.

I had been so focused on Mercer that I didn't hear the approaching helicopter.

A grenade exploded in front of me, the blast knocking me back slightly. The explosion did little damage, but a thick substance clung to me, already evaporating on my flesh.

Bloodtox. It began eating away at my body slowly and painfully as it went from a liquid to a gaseous state.

I looked up at my attackers, seeing multiple helicopters inbound. The closest one had its nose pointed away, a grenadier aiming at me from its compartment.

He fired again, only this time I had a warning. I jumped away from the blast, avoiding the poison.

They couldn't have been after Mercer. All of them seemed to be armed with the bloodtox grenades. A gunship began firing at me, machine gun ripping through my body.

The thick layer of organic armor seemed to form of its own volition. The black hawks began dropping people off on rooftops, trying to box me in. Some stayed on board, still aiming at me from in the birds. I noticed that Mercer had disappeared. How he got away without me noticing, I couldn't even understand.

One of the helicopters flew close to me, an unarmed soldier leaning out of it. He held up a mega phone with his free hand, the other holding tightly to the rail.

"Unit 242, we are not here to destroy you. Red Crown needs you alive. Come peacefully or we will contain you forcefully."

Fuck Red Crown.

I reached down and pulled up a chunk of concrete from the roof, and threw it toward him. The pilot barely dodged it, but the soldier held on without a problem.

"Take him down!" He motioned at the soldiers scattered on the rooftops. What seemed like a couple hundred grenades rocketed to me. Quickly, I disengaged my armor. I managed to evade the explosion, but the collective cloud of bloodtox enveloped me.

My mask did nothing to keep the bloodtox out of my lungs. Every breath I took while in the toxic cloud ripped up my insides. I went to higher ground, the cloud dissipating too slowly.

It seemed to circulate through my body briefly, causing pain everywhere. I clung to a wall, waiting for the pain to subside. More explosions hit me and the area around me.

Trying to escape from the area was useless. The moment I started running, a gunship unleashed rockets on me, blowing me right back into the bloodtox.

I noticed that vehicles were exiting the bloodtox facility, large blowers mounted on them. The entire area was slowly being enveloped in the poisonous cloud.

I was starting to feel weak, the red mist killing off pieces of my body slowly.

I tried striking the attackers with my whipfist, but every time I killed one, another stepped into his place, a helicopter firing upon me. Every time I escaped one cloud of bloodtox, another sprouted up.

Three grenades struck me at ounce, knocking me onto my back. The bloodtox clung to me, my body still trying to fight it off. I couldn't move, and my vision was fading. I only saw the blurred rotating of helicopter blades before everything disappeared.

* * *

"Cease fire." The captain of the Wisemen team called out, his bird touching down on the rooftop the soldier had collapsed on. It was difficult for any of them to see in the shroud of bloodtox, but they knew the subject was neutralized.

The Captain walked up to the soldier, seeing that his body was still trying to fight off the bloodtox. He aimed his launcher at the immobile soldier, stepping up to him carefully.

He kicked him slightly, causing him to roll onto its back. The virus reacted weakly, but eventually gave up as the bloodtox dissipated.

A few more Blackwatch troopers came jogging up.

"Take him to the bird and contain him. We're bringing him back to Red Crown." The troopers shouldered their weapons, reaching down to bring the soldier up.

"Shit! This bastard weighs a ton."

"I didn't ask for bitching. Shut the fuck up and contain him."

The troopers struggled to carry the soldier to the black hawk, needing three people to lift him.

"Red Crown, we have captured and contained the subject. Bringing him in for detainment."

"Copy that Captain."

The various aircraft in the area began touching down to pick up the scattered troops.

Everything seemed to stop when the guttural roar broke through the sound of helicopter blades. The Captain and the troops all looked southward, seeing large pink creatures barreling to them.

There were over thirty of them, clawing up concrete and asphalt as they ran on all fours. They were following about ten leader hunters. They had no regard for the buildings they came across, merely going through them, or over them with ease.

The Captain almost dropped his grenade launcher as he grabbed his radio.

"Hunters inbound; drop in the D-codes now!" The radio clicked in confirmation. The captain held his grenade launcher up, aiming toward the army of hunters tearing their way to the bloodtox facility.

"Keep them away from the facility. Open up!" He began firing into the crowd of hunters, the Blackwatch troopers doing the same. The bloodtox grenades seemed to have some effect, actually making the hunters cringe and shake their bodies frantically, attempting to get the bloodtox off.

There were too many of them; even the Wisemen team couldn't keep the hunter army at bay for longer than a few seconds.

The lesser hunters rampaged across the rooftops, killing bundles of the Blackwatch troops with ease. Helicopters coming in from a nearby refueling station were flying low, obviously carrying a lot of weight.

The captain watched out of the corner of his eye, making sure to fight off any hunters getting too close. Despite his own ability, and his confidence in the slowly dwindling troopers he had picked, he knew that they couldn't take on these monsters without help.

The presence of the Leaders alone were enough for him to call in backup from the remaining Super Soldiers. There had been only a starting number of 161 of them, and many had died in the line of duty against the infection. The last trained D-code soldiers were a precious commodity at Blackwatch. The ones strong enough to have survived multiple conflicts in the city.

As a helicopter began to hover above him, a hunter pulled itself onto the roof. The captain had already unloaded his grenade launcher into the crowds, and was currently reloading the revolver style cylinder. The hunter rampaged toward him, claws up and ready to cleave him in half.

An almost comically large figure dropped down behind the hunter, gripping its neck and ribs and fluidly lifting it over his head. The super soldier managed to crush part of its skeleton and kick it off the rooftop.

The captain had only paused for a moment, then immediately went back to loading the grenades into the cylinder.

"Protect the bloodtox facility. We'll cover you as best as we can." The captain yelled the orders out, the D-code solder nodding once and taking off at a high speed. Despite their large size, the super soldiers were unnaturally quick and agile.

More helicopters were coming in, the super soldiers too large to fit with the birds themselves. They hung onto the rails outside of the vehicles, not even using ropes to drop down.

The Blackhawks turned back once unloaded, going to pick up the rest of the enhanced soldiers.

Once the captain had time to get back to suppressing the army of hunters, he noticed something odd. The bulk of the hunters weren't anywhere near the bloodtox facility. There were a small number attempting to destroy the blowers and as much of the facility that they could get to. But the remaining hunters were bowling their way to an unassuming warehouse.

"Fuck! Situation reassessed! Bloodtox facility is not the target! Protect the Blacklight storage warehouse!" The captain almost broke the radio from clutching it so tightly. The captain began running toward the one stationary helicopter in the area; the one holding the captured runner.

The very moment he began climbing into the bird, something large ripped its way through the machine as if it were made of Styrofoam. The engine combusted, causing the captain to fly back a short distance. The exposed parts of his body were burnt short of permanent damage, pieces of his equipment blown off of him cleanly. Shrapnel from the helicopter had done the worst damage, burying itself into various areas of his body. Though it hurt him more than he had been hurt before in combat, it was nothing life threatening.

What was life threatening was the hunter slowly lumbering toward him. The captain had dropped his weapon, having only his sidearm as armament.

He raised the handgun up with determination and began firing into the beast. He continued to fire into the creature, not even flinching as it ripped him, and the concrete beneath him into pieces.

* * *

The humans were too weak, even with their "super" soldiers. Greene's forces ripped through the humans with ease.

The hive mind was watching through their multiple channels, including the ones set within the Blackwatch soldiers. The flying machines would be a slight obstacle. Heavy weapons and soldiers armed with the deadly poison. It was time to take the control Greene had been patiently refraining from using.

"_Adam."_

"What?" The soldier heard the voice more clearly than he heard his radio, feeling uncharacteristic trepidation surge through his head.

"_Its time Adam… Time for you to be with us…"_

The soldier struggled briefly in his own head as he felt a surge of foreign emotions and thoughts. He panicked for the slightest moment as his entire mind was over written by a single command.

"_Obey!"_

The overtaken Blackwatch soldier immediately swung his grenade launcher at the nearest being that wasn't under Greene's control. The situation was spread amongst the surviving Blackwatch soldiers. The previously benign infected carriers were attacking the remaining threats to Greene's plans. Despite the danger, the soldiers aboard the helicopters fearlessly killed the pilots, causing the vehicles to crash.

Even the super soldiers were beginning to fall to the mass of destructive hunters. Nothing would stop Greene now. She would retrieve her objective, and finally finish off what had happened so many years ago.

While the remaining soldiers were occupied by the still strong army of hunters, a heavily damaged infected carrier stumbled out of helicopter wreckage and toward the now empty warehouse.

What few soldiers were inside had come out to defend their post. The hunters dispatched them with ease.

The infected carrier continued to stumble into the warehouse, right leg almost completely destroyed, blood seeping out from various spots all over his body. Pain was overridden by obedience and determination. The dying soldier made his way into the sealed off part of the warehouse, knowing exactly what his mistress wanted.

It didn't take long for him to find the samples labeled DX-1118 M. The M stood for Mercer, as it was a variant engineered and unleashed by the late Alex Mercer.

He took one of the tightly sealed containers from its resting place, and began limping out of the warehouse slowly. The battle outside seemed to have been quelled, the small army of hunters having overcome the heavy Blackwatch forces.

The leader hunters were lined up, waiting with resigned ferocity. The infected carrier didn't even hesitate as he stepped past the beasts, still carrying the heavy container.

The entire block began to rumble as something moved beneath the surface of the street. Asphalt began to come apart as the ground beneath it was distended. A large, short dome of distended asphalt and dirt formed in the middle of the gathered hunters, an overly large worm-like hydra bursting to the surface.

Its oversized jaws split apart at the tip, revealing a more traditional maw. It curved itself to the ground as something slid out of the maw gracefully.

Elizabeth Greene stood in front of the large hydra, still dressed in the suit she had been forced to wear during her detainment at Gentek. The entire area had fallen silent, even the normally ambient growls of the leader hunters ceasing utterance. Greene was covered in blood stains as usual, her appearance setting the expectation of either a horribly insane woman, or a survivor of some disaster.

She walked like neither of those expectations, moving with unnatural grace and a disturbing amount of fluidity.

The infected carrier was motionless, waiting for his mistress to accept his offering. She stood in front of him, looking so deeply into his unmasked eyes that it physically hurt his brain.

He held up the container shakily. She took it from him, never looking away.

She crushed the object easily, breaking the vials within it, causing the materials contained in it to seep into her flesh.

She absorbed the modified virus, taking everything she could and making it her own. She combined this unnaturally mutated virus with her own imperfect biology, finally completing her horribly devastated genetics.

The hunters surrounding her roared their approval, the soldier unable to celebrate.

Greene reached out and cradled the damaged soldier to herself, as a mother comforting a child.

She crushed his skull in and began absorbing his remaining biomass into herself.

For the first time, she experienced the act of consuming through her own eyes, taking someone else's memories, genetics, and soul into her own body.

She was finally strong enough. She could finally overcome the wayward child and infect the city. After making the foothold, she would finally find her first born child.

Nothing would stop the determined mother.


	7. Author's Note

Author's Note:

I just now heard about Prototype 2, and found that its story focuses on a marine who is infected by Alex Mercer. I've read into it, and even though there are some major differences between my story and the story for Prototype 2, I don't feel very comfortable continuing this work. I'm leaving it up to whoever reads my stories to decide on whether I should continue writing and uploading chapters on this. You can leave reviews or message me personally, and if enough people tell me to continue, I will. If you don't want me to continue, then go ahead and let me know in reviews or PM's.

Hope to hear from you soon.


	8. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Despite my reservations, due to reader's demand I am going to continue writing this story. This chapter is a bit short, but since it's been so long since I've put up a chapter, I might as well upload it anyway. Please, enjoy. There will be more to come soon.

* * *

Consciousness finally graced me with its presence. My eyes shot open, my arms rising up in defense. It took me a little bit of time to realize that I was no longer under attack, and the pain I was in was lingering from an earlier injury.

I was in some kind of dark container, the inside cold and metallic. I immediately began ripping open the container with my claws, allowing red light to flood in.

I stumbled out of the scraps, falling onto my hands and knees as I evacuated my innards. Blood pooled below me, pouring from my mask.

My body's mass was unstable, in the process of regenerating a fraction of itself.

I stood up, looking at the barren battleground I was in the middle of.

The air was warm, and red; the infection thick.

Mutilated corpses of human and hunter filling up the streets.

The structure of every building compromised.

This was ground zero of a horrible tragedy.

Had I actually slept through it, even while contained in a simple metal box? Bloodtox truly was a nasty substance.

I saw the remains of the Wisemen Team leader. His body divided into pieces, his hand still clutching his side-arm.

I had to find out what happened. Was this Mercer's doing? Or had Greene finally resurfaced?

But first, I had to regenerate, and my body was already too taxed to continue without consuming someone.

I left the uninhabited area, amazed that nothing had found me.

* * *

After finding walkers to consume, I began heading toward another military base to find some answers.

I was stopped as I passed by a hive. There were walkers surrounding it, as usual, but the structure of the hive looked different, denser, fiercer. Almost like the armored hives Greene had started making before Mercer hijacked a thermobaric tank, only thick plates of black armor were beginning to overtake the dense red armor.

There were no tanks or soldiers fighting against this hive, only a few patrolling hunters on the hive's roof. One of them spotted me.

It roared its typical guttural roar and fearlessly jumped off the hive, its brothers following. My blade had already formed, my skin hardening as much as it could without calling out my armor.

I waited for them to come to me, ready to begin striking.

The hunter in front of the pack raised its claws, the structure of its limb breaking down for a moment before it solidified into a crudely formed blade. The blunt blade was rammed into the ground, far away from me.

I had never seen hunters do something like this. They typically had a rudimentary control over their biomass, but nothing like this.

My thoughts were interrupted as the ground beneath me suddenly disintegrated, a single black spire erupting from the hole. It managed to hit me, knocking me back slightly. The spire retreated, and the hunter pulled its arm back out of the ground, its friends already closing in on me.

Their limbs had become similar, crudely formed blades, too short to be used for anything but extremely close combat.

The strikes were easy to dodge, as if their bodies weren't use to fighting in this way. I had an opening; a quick slash across the abdomen of one of the mutated hunters. My blade went through it cleanly, cutting it in half as if it were a clay figure.

Either I had become stronger, or these mutant hunters were significantly weaker than ones I had faced before.

The pitiful creature flailed on the ground as it bled out, its strange organs slipping out of its body.

I was so distracted by my unexpected accomplishment that I left myself open for attack. Two of the hunters began swiping at my back, knocking me off my feet.

I turned over, claws formed, muscle mass doubled. Blocking their attacks, I tried to strike at their heads, wanting to sever them.

A piercing shriek caused the hunters to freeze. It was a sound I had never heard before, a strange combination of sounds focused into a shrill roar.

The hunters moved away from me, their blade hands returning to normal.

I got up to my feet, still ready to fight. Something dropped down to street level, a block away from me.

Looking over I saw what looked like a human figure, only it was completely black, shadowy. Despite my incredibly enhanced vision, I couldn't make out its exact details. Almost as if this was some kind of wraith. But I could see that it seemed to be wearing a hood.

Mercer?

No. Where its face should have been, two red eyes opened, focusing on me. A fanged maw appeared below its eyes, the piercing shriek I heard earlier sounding from it. It sprinted toward me, shadowy arms forming into claws similar to my own.

My armor formed quickly, claws up in defense. As soon as it was close enough to strike, I slashed forward, swiping through clean air. I looked from side to side, trying to find the wraith.

A powerful blow hit my back, actually fracturing my exoskeleton. I flew forward a few yards, attempting to right myself. My armor melted away, the wraith far too fast for my armored form.

It made a series of chirping sounds, as if it were laughing.

It raised its arm and swiped, a long tendril lashing out at me. I caught it in my claw, pulling it in. A series of spines suddenly burst from the tendril, piercing my appendages. I let go immediately, raising up my shield in time to stop the forward thrust of the wraith's claws.

It was too fast. I could just barely manage to keep up with its movements. It roared at me in that strange shrill voice, breaking through my shield and going for my head.

I grabbed onto its wrist, its slightly human shaped hand trying to grasp my face. I struggled to keep it away, muscle mass forming outside of my arm.

Its finger managed to touch my mask, a moment of fear shooting through me. I didn't know if my face was still behind this mask, and I didn't want to find out.

I kicked out one of its legs, throwing the wraith over my head and behind me. It landed on its feet, and attempted another strike. I dodged a thin blade thrust at my face, countering with a powerful punch to what was supposedly this thing's face.

It actually shrieked lowly in pain, its head whipping back.

I grabbed it by the throat, punching it repeatedly in the face, hearing it shriek in reaction.

After a few punches I threw it forward, bringing my excess biomass to my arms, charging it into an attack.

Before the wraith could gather itself, I unleashed an almost explosive blast of biological material into it, a concentrated beam on biomass shooting from my hands and directly into it, damaging it far beyond any conventional attack.

The wraith flew back almost an entire block, landing on its back. It lied there for a long moment, before finally forcing itself to its feet, the crackling sound of bones resetting themselves.

It groaned shrilly, contorting its body as it tried to heal. Its head turned from side to side, looking at the hunters near it. Its arms suddenly whipped out into tendrils, piercing through two of the hunter's chests. The hunters struggled briefly before being pulled in by a superior force.

The two hunters collided violently with the wraith, their forms exploding into red and black tendrils.

I watched this, wishing I had killed the hunters earlier.

The mass of black and red slowly solidified and shrunk back down to the form the wraith appeared in. It shrieked victoriously, tendrils writhing all around its shadowy form.

It thrust its somewhat human hands forward, twin spears of black material bursting from its palms. As the spears flew through the air, they suddenly fractured into innumerable needles.

I watched as they came toward me, like a mass of arrows fired from an army of archers. My armor formed automatically as I willed my shield forward. I stood my ground and attempted to position my shield perfectly. The mass of needles descended upon me, smaller pieces stopped by my shield, larger fragments having enough velocity to pierce my armor and shield.

As the final needles hit the ground, I looked at the wraith, its movement so powerful that asphalt was flying freely behind it.

Armor disengaged, blade formed, I charged at it as well, throwing all of my strength into a single strike.

Twin sensations. Feeling my blade pierce this creature's body, while feeling multiple daggers pierce my own body.

It ripped out as much of my body as it could, while I did the same. Two animals in a constant exchange of injury.

The last hunter attempted to intervene. I chopped its head off cleanly, and saw that the wraith had punctured the thing's heart. It didn't want any interference either.

My body automatically began to absorb the dead hunter's body, the wraith doing the same.

For one strange moment, I could see through the wraith's eyes, feel what it felt, knew what it knew. As we simultaneously absorbed the hunter, we exchanged our own biological information with each other.

My insight faded rapidly, but I could still remember some of what I had seen, felt.

It was absolutely imperative that I consume this strange creature.

It seemed as if the wraith was moving slower, no longer moving at those unseen speeds that almost killed me. But as I struck it with my blade, undermining its defensive stance, I realized that I was merely moving just as fast.

I charged up that excess biomass again, the process almost instant.

The explosive blast erupted from me again, hitting the wraith directly. I was already moving before the wraith hit the ground, its strange black blood spilling across the road. Switching to a combination of claws and muscle mass, I leapt toward the down creature.

I landed on top of it, the wraith struggling violently, shrieking in what sounded like panic. I unleashed a barrage of punches to its face, ripping into its strange flesh, breaking its bones, doing everything in my power to reduce this thing into pulp.

Its struggles died down, shrieking ceased as thin tendrils reached out of my back and began absorbing the defeated wraith.

All that remained of it was a puddle of its black blood, and a few strips of what might have been its flesh.

Memories surged into my mind, throwing reality into darkness.

I saw a small army of hunter rip through a team of Blackwatch, the very team that had subdued me. I watched as soldiers within the team turned on their comrades, compromising everyone. I saw Greene resurface and take the samples I had set out to destroy.

I watched as Greene suddenly erupted into a plethora of tendrils that pierced every living thing around her, including her own hunters, absorbed their bodies, and solidified back to her original form.

I saw her begin creating new creatures, bastardized recreations of Mercer. She sent these wraiths out into the city to introduce the modified virus into the hives across the island.

Where Greene had gone to, the wraith hadn't known.

I fell back into the present, looking over at the hive. The black plates of armor had completely overtaken the structure, sealing it off from damage. I wouldn't be able to damage it now. Most likely, the hive was incubating more of these wraiths, and I could do nothing to stop it. There were many hives on the island, and more were sprouting up everyday.

I needed help. But there was no one who could help.

Except…


	9. Chapter 8

Author's note: Not to spoil anything in this chapter, but this is the final installment. The story is now complete. Please, review this piece, even if you've already reviewed a previous chapter. Thank you for reading; enjoy.

* * *

Red Crown command had gone completely dark. Marines were pushed away from the compound, ordered to reinforce the military bases scattered across the island. That was merely to keep their ears away from Battery Park. The power in the compound was completely shut off, and all radio contact had been ceased.

The most secure room in the Red Crown compound was slowly being filled with the remaining Blackwatch troops, guards keeping watch on the single entrance. The guard consisted of two Blackwatch troops, and a single D-code soldier. Every trooper that came up to them was scanned by the D-code intensively. If he found something he didn't like, one of the other guards would shoot the soldier on site. So far, over fifteen Blackwatch troops were discovered to be infected carriers. Their bodies were unceremoniously discarded into a corner of the hallway, awaiting disposal.

There would be no leaks in this briefing.

Once everyone had been sorted, executed, or approved, the single door was locked, and everyone stood at attention as the General made his presence known.

His name was General Stevens, Randall's replacement.

"The Wisemen team has been obliterated, no survivors. And it has been confirmed that Greene is not only still active, but is now in possession, and manufacturing an extremely dangerous variant of the Blacklight virus.

"Every single one of you in this room, will die."

There wasn't even a flutter of displeasure at this information. Every soldier stood at attention, waiting for their orders.

"Zeus halted operation Fire Break under Randall's command. That wont happen again. We are calling in every single Blackwatch operative from Fort Detrick to assault three targets. Zeus, Mother, and the subject from Carnival III."

Carnival III had been revealed to the remainder of Blackwatch on the island after the Wisemen team had been destroyed, as Stevens had already made the decision to sacrifice everyone on the island.

"As you are all aware, the assault is merely a distraction. You, and many other soldiers, are about to make the ultimate sacrifice for your country. I am proud to call you my troops, and I am honored, to be the one to give the order."

General Stevens saluted the troops, the entire room reciprocating the action.

A true testament to a single minded goal; these soldiers, whose existence is beyond top secret, were more than willing to die by the orders of their superior.

* * *

Finding Mercer was extremely difficult. He was more than just elusive, he was a goddamned spook. An intangible spirit that had no basis in reality. It was made all the more difficult when the hives began freely producing these wraith creatures. I had no weapons, biological or otherwise, that could destroy the hives, so it was impossible to stop the wraiths from being spawned.

All I could do was avoid them, or attempt to destroy one if it was too persistent.

They were getting stronger, and each one was unique in some way. They adapted beyond simply making themselves stronger, or developing weapons to combat the poor Marines who accidently stumbled onto them. They were independent, intelligent, and biologically single minded. The hive mind went beyond simply guiding them; it created them for the purpose of destruction, and left no room for rebellion.

Which made it easier to give them high degrees of intelligence. They thought tactfully, and even had a sense of self, giving them the capability to not only change their forms, but also their minds on the fly. Yet none of them questioned the authority of the central mind.

It was dangerous to consume them. Since they appeared, I had fought and consumed three of them, and every time their minds became one with mine, I risked being overtaken by the hive mind mentality. It had become a completely different game from fighting walkers and hunters. Their minds held nothing more than an animal's would, and they could be consumed safely. I could touch the hive mind without it trying to reprogram me.

The wraiths were too strong. Not just physically, but mentally. They attempted to consume, even while being consumed. I don't know how many of them I could take into myself before my mind was over written. But it was the only way to kill them. If left unconsumed, they would regenerate, and come back stronger than ever. I made that mistake with the third one, and almost died.

The air had changed. It wasn't just infection that covered the island. It was the cessation of wind, of all movement, including sound waves. The island was already dead. It was just waiting for the moment to come now.

I hadn't seen a civilian in days, and the marines were dwindling. Blackwatch was completely absent, in retreat before something horrible happens. I wouldn't be surprised if they were preparing to nuke the island, successfully. There would be no way to stop it, and I am forced to accept this. It would be the only way to stop the infection now, even if that includes my destruction as well.

But if I could just destroy Greene, consume her, and take control of the infection, maybe I could reverse it. Deconstruct it from the inside. Mercer has to come to this conclusion as well. Despite the wraiths having no knowledge of Greene's location, or plans, they still had a latent understanding of the basic idea. Greene would make her presence known, and she was going to do it soon.

If Mercer was out fighting these wraiths, he would understand this as well. When the time comes, when the apocalypse begins and the veil is lifted, Mercer and I will fight alongside each other, attempting to save the island; the very island we have fucked over innumerable times.

* * *

Mother had retreated back into the ground, festering upon herself, feasting viciously on any biological matter she could find. She could see everything now, through the wraiths and the remaining infected carriers in the marines. All contact with Blackwatch had died, but she didn't worry about this. She was too strong to feel that childish emotion now.

Greene waited patiently, knowing the perfect moment to surface was coming soon.

She would finally see her baby again, after being separated for so long. She had endured unimaginable torture for so long, losing everything in her, except for her desire to hold her child just one more time. It was the last bit of human in her, and even that little fragment was twisted and bastardized by the virus. It was the only thing that was strong enough to withstand the virus, even after it consumed her.

* * *

Mercer was running away from the newly created wraiths, no longer willing to consume anymore, after having done so over five times. Fighting the infected like this wouldn't work, he already knew this. His single motivation was to destroy Greene, angered beyond belief that she evaded him twice now. He had almost forgotten about the soldier from Carnival III, and barely noticed that Blackwatch had retreated from the island. He couldn't afford to worry about anyone else but Greene.

* * *

Blackwatch was mobilized, every single soldier armed and briefed, even those fresh out of training. The experimental group designated as D-code were hastily finished and shipped out to Manhattan, some still recovering from surgery, despite their incredible regeneration.

Every soldier was outfitted with the best technology that DARPA could give out, short of plunging every citizen in the U.S. into poverty.

Blackwatch would cease to not exist, and they were going out with an atomic bang. Hooah.

* * *

It was getting closer. The moment Greene was waiting for. I wasn't sure what to look for, what would set off the bomb that was the hive mind.

But it isn't often that you see hundreds of vehicles, both grounded and air born, slowly making their way through the city, shooting literally everything that moves, infected or otherwise.

Blackwatch had completely mobilized, using the heaviest gear I had ever seen. Thermobaric tanks fired upon the hives, fracturing the black armor and angering the wraiths. But they weren't after them. Every time they stirred up a hive, they moved on, as if searching for something.

They must have been after Greene. I stayed out of site, hiding in buildings as helicopters passed over. They left no room for error, hitting everything they saw with full force. They even managed a system for destroying the wraiths, even if only temporary. The soldiers would hit them with everything they had, and D-codes would pile up their remains to be incinerated by flamethrower troops.

They were going to burn down the whole city, one infected creature at a time.

I had never seen Blackwatch behave like this. They were ruthless, and destructive, but never stupid. There had to be some reason for their fearless presence in the face of such a dangerous situation.

Fuck…

They were calling out Greene. Causing so much damage to the members of the hive mind that she would have no choice but to surface to destroy them. All of these soldiers were nothing but fodder. Shock troops. Once she surfaced, they would nuke the island, destroying the infection, Greene, Mercer, the remaining Blackwatch operatives, and me. These soldiers were committing suicide, that's why they fought so well.

There were too many of them, and they were too well armed for me to face alone. I could only hope to find Greene before a tactical nuke turned the surface of this island into glass.

I dropped down to street level and began running, faster than I had ever run before. The helicopters and tanks that spotted me saw only a flash of an alert before I disappeared. No one bothered to chase me. I might have even broken the sound barrier a few short times.

I searched frantically for some sign that Greene was above ground. Running from hive to hive in progress, pushing past wraiths and rarely encountered hunters. My vision had become almost completely blacked out, my eyes searching for Greene's unique infected signature.

I began running up the side of the tallest building I could find, scaling its vertical incline with such force that I left a visible scar on the building's face. I reached the top, and began searching as far as my eyes could see, scanning every relative inch of the island in my view.

I was about to jump down from the sky scraper, returning to my frantic searching. That's when I felt the booming whisper scream through my biology.

"_Now!"_

The building began to shake, every window breaking almost simultaneously. Cracks appeared in the concrete; metal was fractured and stressed to the point of curling into itself like ribbons on party balloons.

The entire building seemed to sway from side to side, causing me to lose my balance. I nearly fell as biological structures began to emerge from the stressed structure. Fierce spires of red and black burst from the building, reaching higher and widening. I fell along with the concrete and metal as the building was shed like a dry layer of dead skin, a new structure taking form. A massive tower of biomass, straight out of some horror fantasy story. Its roots began to spread viciously, knocking down buildings in the same manner as the former sky scraper.

I hit the bottom of the tower, landing on my back. It took me a moment to right myself, my spine broken. The surface I was on slithered and reacted, the tower continuing to reach skyward. I looked around as it continued to spread out width wise, taking over the central area of Manhattan Island. The tower's structure began solidifying, hardening into a true tower. Some areas remained exposed, becoming sores like those found on hives.

This was Greene's master piece. A true foothold in the island. No amount of military technology, short of a nuclear device, would ever crack this thing open.

I didn't have much time. Greene had to be on or in this disgusting tower. I had to find her and consume her, before Red Crown incinerated everything.

"I believe we're both thinking the same thing."

I turned to see Mercer standing near me. In the past, I would have reacted instinctively, attempting to kill him for Blackwatch, for myself. Now I needed him, more than I needed the destructive force slowly burning through the infected only a couple miles from our location.

"We are. Greene needs to be stopped. If we don't reverse the infection, this entire island is dead."

He nodded, looking up at the tower. I looked as well, seeing the sores pulsate to the point of bursting. A wraith sprung from it, the creature formed so rapidly that it was imperfect. Its body was misshapen, mass in its torso disproportionate to the rest of its body. When it shrieked, it was guttural, like a hunter. Multiple shrieks of various types told me there were more wraiths. They were converging on the now central hive of the city.

As the hive finally finished ascending, it became like a true fantasy structure, a rudimentary stairway forming in a spiral wrapping around the tower. Green was challenging us, knowing that we were here.

The mutant wraith shrieked a second time, leaping at us from its vantage point. I saw Mercer spring upward, meeting it in midair with a blade strike through the torso. He pinned the creature to the tower and began beating into it.

I heard another shriek, a more balanced wraith charging at me, claws formed. I met it with a kick to the head, sending it flying backward. Moving as fast as possible, I charged at it, combined powers of claws and muscle mass formed.

I had to finish it quickly, ripping into its body and consuming it before it could retaliate.

"_Your bodies are so beautiful! Holding so many souls within yourselves. You'll make delicious snacks for my children."_

I had to physically force myself away from Greene's influence, my mind so dangerously close to being taken over. Looking over, I saw Mercer in the midst of the same struggle. She was actively seeking our obedience now, diving into our minds every time we were close enough.

I looked down from our location on the tower, seeing hundreds of wraiths closing in on us, Blackwatch trailing behind them.

I didn't give myself the luxury to hesitate. I sprinted up the crude staircase, Mercer already ahead of me. He was faster, but it didn't matter. The tower was so massive that it would take at least ten minutes to reach the top, even with both of us running at top speed. And that didn't include the distractions bursting freely from the hive's sores.

The wraiths were unstable, and easy to counter, but consuming them had become a gamble. There was a 95% chance that Greene could take over during the consuming process, and our odds of survival were fading rapidly.

One wraith was too strong to simply punch and run. I was forced to consume it, ripping it up and absorbing its body.

"_Yes! Come to me. Mommy missed you."_

"Argh! Fuck!"

I squeezed my skull so tightly that I hurt myself.

Mercer was still near me, fighting off two wraiths that had snuck up on him. He threw one off the edge of the tower, consuming the other one.

He clutched at his head, biomass unstable. I watched as he fell to his knees, physically thrashing and fighting off Greene's control. He was stuck in between obedience and rebellion. I punched him in the face, forcing him out of the trance.

He came back into reality, pushing me away and sprinting back up the tower. I followed.

Too much time had passed by. We were delayed too long, and any moment could have been followed by a blinding flash of nuclear light. Red Crown wouldn't delay for long, and were probably already in the process of launching.

We reached the top of the tower, the peak was leveled off and surrounded by massive spires of black and red that reached even further into the sky. The ground was moist and yielding like flesh. It was sickening.

I looked around, seeing what looked like a maw in the center of the tower, teeth sealing it shut.

The wraiths were closing in, finally catching up to us from the staircase. I turned, claws at the ready. A mass of black, shadowy figures were charging at us, eyes so wide they were perfectly round, fanged maws open and searching for flesh.

Once they saw us, they stopped.

I waited for them to resume charging, but they stayed put, despite the wild look in their eyes.

I turned back around, hearing a rumbling sound. The maw in the center of the area opened up, a figure climbing out of it.

Greene. She still looked the same. Disheveled hair, blood stains of unknown sources, and a Gentek project suit. She looked at us with the same intent of the wraiths, only her hunger seemed to stem beyond the simple need for food. She needed something else, something that Mercer and I had.

Her right arm transformed into something similar to the whipfist, the tendril reaching out to impale me. I dodged it, using my blade arm to cut it off before it could retract. Looking forward, I saw Mercer charging, blade also formed. She used a second whipfist from her left arm to keep him away, striking him with a powerful slash.

I thrust my left claw forward, recalling something I learned from the wraiths. I launched a spear of black material from my palm, the piece aimed perfectly at Greene. Before it could strike her, she formed a shield to block it.

Her shield was much stronger than my own, the spear shattering on impact.

Mercer was back on his feet, and now close enough to strike at Greene with a flurry of blade attacks. She blocked as best as she could, shield barely holding up.

I charged as Mercer attacked, seeing an opening.

As Mercer managed a slash across Greene, I struck the shield, shattering it. She seemed to panic for a moment, before releasing a large amount of biomass from her body.

Tendrils erupted from her, piercing through Mercer and I instantly, pushing us back and continually damaging our bodies.

I fell to my hands and knees, throwing up the damaged material within my body.

Looking up, Mercer was already up and fighting, already recovered from that horrible attack. He was much stronger than I was, and he was holding his own against Greene, much better than I was.

Heaving and evacuating the last bit of blood from my internal wounds, I got back up, my body already regenerating.

I ran toward them, jumping high into the air, blade above my head. Swinging down, I aimed for Greene's head. As I was coming down, I saw her eyes widen. She performed a series of nimble back flips to avoid my devastating strike, Mercer almost caught by it.

He jumped over me, leaping more directly into Greene. He managed to stab her in the shoulder with his claw, blade arm held of by her own set of claws. I ran to them, skidding through her legs, causing her to fall.

As she lost her balance, Mercer got on top of her, blade dangerously close to her face. She struggled against it, claws pushing back with all the strength she had.

She turned to the group of wraiths, calling out in her raspy voice.

"_Help me!"_

Four wraiths immediately ran forward, shrieking desperately.

I got between the wraiths and Mercer, ramming both claws into the fleshy tower. I sent as much biomass as I could through the tower, a nearly complete wall of spikes erupting under the wraiths. The spikes pierced their bodies, stopping their advance. I disconnected the biomass from myself, keeping this wall in between us and the wraiths, even if only temporarily.

Greene had managed to get out from under Mercer, fighting against him with her own blade. I rammed my claw into the ground again, sending a more conventional groundspike attack in her direction. She didn't anticipate this, getting caught in the small collection of spires. Mercer followed through with a few slashes and strikes from his blade.

Retracting the spikes, I charged forward. Greene was getting weak.

I began cutting into her with my claws, ripping out her flesh.

She tried to counter with her blade, and with the strongest blow I could muster, I slashed through her shoulder, severing her blade arm from her body cleanly.

She jumped back, holding the slowly regenerating wound.

Mercer and I charged at her simultaneously, ready to finish her off.

I grabbed onto her left arm, while Mercer took her newly regenerated right arm. We pulled with all the strength we had, hearing Greene's body stress and pop and we pulled her apart.

I felt the tendrils come out of my back, piercing through her in an attempt to take her biomass.

Her mind shrieked within my own, struggling against being consumed.

"_No! NO! MY BABY! I NEED TO FIND MY BABY!"_

I continued to pull, both physically and mentally, feeling her fight harder than anything that I had ever consumed before. Her voice had begun speaking in gibberish, screaming in nonsense words, flashes of images I couldn't understand bursting in my mind. She was struggling so violently that I feared for my own sanity.

As I continued to pull in Greene's biomass, I suddenly saw something I wasn't expecting.

I saw a vial of a concentrated disease hit concrete and shatter, a plethora of voices and faces surging forth. I felt the emotions of thousands of dead people in their very peaks, emotions I had the capacity to feel. I saw thousands of lifetimes pass before me, lives I lived through an infinite amount of times.

Then I felt it happen all over again, through my own eyes.

The collective that almost claimed me so long ago, the same collective that killed me that day on road block duty, it was mine. All mine. Rather than being filed into the collective, I filed it into my own catalogue.

Greene's struggles ceased, her biomass and shattered memories slipping into Mercer and I. Looking at my enemy turned comrade, I could tell he experienced it too. As we consumed Greene at the same time, we also consumed pieces of each other. We both knew everything the other had to know. I was as strong as him, and he was as strong as me.

I felt a foreign power surface, a control that I had never been able to exert. I could see through the eyes of the wraiths, who had broken down the wall of spikes I had erected earlier. All of their eyes were on us, no longer seeing us as enemies. I was a part of the hive mind now, a higher order mind capable of controlling these monsters.

I tried to see what control I had over them. I tried to give the order to cease infection, make them retreat into death. They wouldn't respond. I tried harder, trying to make them do anything, even simply take a step forward. They wouldn't follow any orders.

Then I felt it. Something else giving orders as well, orders that they were refusing.

Mercer.

He had consumed half of Greene, and therefore held half of her authority. These wraiths, although highly intelligent, were still animals, and a pack of animals like these couldn't have two alphas. One of us had to die, and prove our superiority before the wraiths would follow any orders.

As I looked at him, Mercer seemed to come to the same conclusion. Our claws formed at the same time, both of us moving in a circular motion.

Perhaps it was something that was set in motion, long before either of us was born. Our entire lives written out to come to this point in time. Two creatures, less than men, but more than gods.

We struck at the same time, the universe falling silent. Even our clashing, which generated sparks, produced no sound. Claw against claw, fist against fist, blade against blade. Every subtle move, every powerful strike was met with its equal.

Our violent clashing began to take its toll on the tower, spires erected by the late Greene collapsing and making a free fall to the dangerously distant ground.

That's when it hit me. A fall from this height would kill anything, even one of us. Our bodies could take an incredible impact, but not from a fall from this height. If I could knock us down from the tower, and I could keep a hold of Mercer, I could keep him under me as we fall. His body would absorb the impact, and I could consume him. It would no longer be a fight of strength, but a fight of luck. It was the only thing that would work.

I continued my barrage of fruitless claw swiping, slowly making my way to the edge of the tower. Any extra velocity I could put into our fall would only help more. I made a false attack, knowing he would reciprocate it. As he followed through with his attack, I grabbed onto his arm, pulling him with me as I let us fall of the edge.

Before he could try to grab onto anything, I kicked off from the tower with every bit of strength I could exude from my legs. That launched us away and down from the tower, my grip on Mercer still tight.

He struggled against me, now knowing what I was doing. I switched my claws for muscle and began punching him in the face, still holding onto him as we rocketed through the air. He tried to make his biomass lighter, doing anything he could to rip himself from my grip, to slow his descent. I wouldn't allow it.

I could see the ground getting closer. I kept Mercer below me, holding him in position as the wind whipped at us. He continued to struggle, looking over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching land.

Slowly, (as slow as a high speed free fall can be) he ceased struggling. He looked up at me, his face calm. He grinned, the first time I had ever seen such a thing on him.

"Good job."

His words were followed by a deafening impact. A hollow boom so loud that every undamaged building within a five mile radius experienced spontaneous window shattering. The ground gave way first, the beginnings of an impact crater forming as Mercer's form broke. Every bone in his body disintegrated, a large amount of his hardened flesh vaporizing as the crater widened. I felt the impact as well, feeling some of my own skeletal structure giving way to the tremendous impact I had incited.

Consciously, I reached out to absorb Mercer's body before it disintegrated completely. As our inertia was finally halted by the ground, Mercer was no more, and I was completely healed.

I stood up in the center of the impact crater, feeling the final pieces of my innards going back into their rightful places. I looked around, seeing the massive tower I had just fallen off of. I could see clearly through the wraith's eyes, and their eyes were on me, despite not being able to see that far. I had absolute control now. The tower began to groan, the sores drying up and ceasing wraith production.

The tower was no longer receiving unconscious commands such as "breathe" or "digest". It was slowly becoming inert, dying from the inside out. The wraiths wouldn't die so simply, but I could still get rid of them.

But I was too late.

Through one of the wraiths fighting against the Blackwatch troopers, I could hear their radio chatter. The nuke had already been launched.

My mind became blank, unable to accept the inevitable reality I fought against so viciously.

Everything I worked for, all the fighting for my survival, all the fighting for the city, for humanity, all of it was about to be wiped out. I lost everything trying to fight the infection.

I don't even remember my own name…

Reaching up, I begin removing my mask. Taking off my helmet and goggles, my gas mask. I let them fall to the ground. Finally, I remove my balaclava, revealing my face and hair to no one.

I breathe in as deeply as I can, feeling clean air for the first time in my life.

My mind begins to reach desperately for something to hang onto. I see childhood memories that don't belong to me. Times of peace and simplicity, before the world was made out of nightmares and malevolence. I see millions of first kisses, millions of children being tucked in for the night, millions of nights staring up at the stars; millions of Christmas mornings and puppy licks and warm hugs. I see it all, and it grants me no peace.

I look to the sky, hearing the garbled impact of death as a light brighter than a thousand suns overtakes me, and the dreams of an entire city.


	10. Chapter 9

Author's note: I lied. Reading over the previous chapter a few times, I realized there was something I forgot. Something that even my protagonist overlooked. We were all caught by surprise by what happened after the nuclear missile detonated. This is the real last chapter, and it's extremely short. The shortest chapter in the entire story. Enjoy this quick read, and maybe we'll see you again.

* * *

It was over two weeks since the tactical nuke had detonated on Manhattan Island. The infection was contained, and destroyed. Everyone who knew about what had transpired on the island had been executed personally by General Stevens. With the entire Blackwatch unit incinerated along with the infection, the cover up was complete.

All that had to be done now was evaluate the island, make sure the nuke had done its job. A small team of scientists had been deployed to the center of the island; they were kept in the dark of course. They were given devices that would seek out the infection, and identify its strain. They wore suits to protect them from the polluted battle ground, ambient radiation at a toxic level.

One scientist was inspecting a large crater near the center of the island, the impact not caused by the nuclear explosion. He had ventured into the center of the impact site, the others checking more noteworthy sites. He used the devices he had been given by his employer, who preferred not to be named.

He was looking forward to getting this over with, not comfortable with using equipment he had never seen before, or being ordered by someone without a name or face.

He was checking stress fractures in the ground, the cracks seemingly more recent than the blast. The device beeped once, getting his attention. He tried to get closer to the cracks in the ground, trying to find the reading he had received for only a moment.

The device beeped again, the stress fracture widening. The scientist furrowed his brow behind his helmet's glass visor. He reached out, feeling the crack through his gloved hand. Pulling his hand back up, he looked at a strange substance that adhered to his finger. It looked like blood.

Scanning it, the device began beeping alarmingly. The small screen on it spelled out "DX-1118 M, variant 1".

The scientist looked at this, not understanding what the device had just identified. He looked at the small spot of blood, working it around between his index finger and thumb. He watched as it seemed to evaporate, its already diminished volume disappearing.

What was actually happening was the virus had made microscopic punctures in the suit, slowly seeping through to the warm flesh of the scientist. As he got up, ready to leave the crater and report back to his shadowy employers, the virus actively entered his bloodstream through his pores. It began viciously attacking his cells, infecting them and consuming them, replicating rapidly.

The scientist noticed only minor discomfort in his hand, attributing it to all the writing he had been doing lately. The virus moved through the scientist's blood stream, consciously seeking out his central nervous system. As it made its way into the cranium, it immediately attacked the frontal lobes, eating away at his brain, disarming the man's thinking.

The scientist didn't even have a chance to react, making only the slightest stumble on his way to his transport, a small cart designed for off road environments. The virus had already consumed his brain, now having enough strength to freely eat away at his body. It took mere seconds for the virus to consume every cell in his body, completely taking over his form and mind.

A set of cold blue eyes stared out from behind the helmet now, quickly deleting the information within the viral detector. Mercer didn't force himself into the ground and survive a second nuclear blast just to be caught by some second hand, pseudo mercenary science team.

He put the device to the suit, trying to see if it would detect him through the protective gear. It didn't have a reading at all.

Mercer looked back at the impact crater, remembering how he had forced the minutest fragment of his body deep into the ground, slithering deep into the earth as the rest of his body was consumed. He had almost been vaporized when the nuclear blast made its way over him, and the days that had passed since were barren and free of nutrition. It was pure luck that this man had reached into the fracture that he had worked himself up through.

Mercer disguised his face, making his way back to the cart, ready to escape the now desolate island. There were still loose ends to tie up, and a new General to hunt.


	11. Author's Note 2

Author's Note:

I am posting this chapter here for all of my readers who added this story to their alert subscriptions. This is to let you know that a sequel to this story has been uploaded on

I hope you enjoyed this story, and I hope to hear from you soon on the sequel, which is titled "Unnatural Evolution: Part 2"

Thank you for reading and subscribing.


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